Tides Of Light, In Chaos
by Chosenoneknuckles
Summary: My adaptation of the Chaos saga featuring the Archie cast with new twists of my own!
1. Watery Abyss

**This is my first story (bar any school stuff of years ago) so bare that in mind whilst reading on through, but good criticism is good however.**

**In this first chapter, it is just a setting up of two key players in the well known Sonic Adventure storyline. But of course since this is my take on the story as well as the Sonic universe itself (**_in the form of Sonic Unlimited_**), expect more original arcs and characters down the road, as well as gaming crossovers!**

**Every story thereafter this one will fit into my SU universe, whether they are full on story arcs or one off character centrics.**

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**Disclaimer: **I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!

Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "**Change The World"** by ARTIST Dream

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**CHAPTER 1: Watery Abyss**

**Unknown Location **

Endless darkness… surrounds me like wisps of smoke ascending from a burning fire.

My body remains the same as it was back then but is in reality nothing but a mere illusion of my mind. Looking around it would be easy to tell that around here, the essence of time and light are void of any meaning.

Wisps of eerie subtle green mist seeping along this 'solid' ground of various shades of black to grey is all else that makes up the structure of this frozen abyss.

This is where I lie, and have laid for several millennia since the last cataclysm that shook the world; the cataclysm that I gave up my life for to avert and give the world a better chance for peace.

Yes, that life is over now… In fact I don't remember much of it, except for the flames and screams in those last breathing moments, the moment that my fate was decided for me by the Great Aurora.

All I know is that I did it to save an old friend, whom resides here with me, and whose distorted mind has created this very darkness that we are shrouded within.

Looking over to my left I see that he sits there, still as catatonic and irresponsive as before. Whenever I've tried to communicate with him through the void he'd just be exactly like that, it's like he isn't even here; as if he is but a mere fragment of my imagination.

And it pains my heart that I can seemly do no good, this echidna girl of who thought best to qualm his rage at the world without even his asking and seal us both away.

No… I HAD to do it, that 'world' is far too precious and beautiful to have been torn asunder in blind rage or by war. But then what, I wonder happened thereafter?

I prevented one cataclysm but in tempting fate did I not set a far graver fate in turn?

Looking down at my gloves, I slide them off and looked at my hands beneath them. They are a light peach hue, which I got from my late mother, but yes… I see that they still bear the flames' wrath of that time as they are darkened in places with ash. Seemly time must indeed have no meaning here. No purpose along with those within it…

I've always tried to do what's right for everyone because it made me happy when they were happy too, free from any aching pains but are my hands stained with blood now too?

Did I let my own feelings overwhelm me that day? Did I do the WRONG thing?

I sigh as I cradle myself in my arms and ponder on the billionth or so thoughts I've had since, well I entered this watery abyss. I guess its fitting for this is where I and the water spirit lie but where are we I wonder and what's going to happen now?

As I try to reminisce on happier memories my small worn hands catch a falling tear from my shining large aqua eyes and in that instance I recall again that I've been missing someone.

But who could it be?

This stupid void… I curse silently to myself, clutching my dress tightly with my hands.

I can't even speak here bar my own circling thoughts. And yet no one is here to hear me anyhow. This place has taken a toll on my memories it seems.

I just wish I could remember the good things, and that person of whom I miss.

How could I have forgotten such things? Why always the good and not the bad, I ponder.

A sudden shuffle of movement breaks me out of my thoughts and looking up I now see that Chaos is standing up right in front of me with his shiny oval green eyes, except they look bigger and darker than moments before.

Looking deeper still I can see that the fiery rage still holds strong in his heart but I know that he would never harm me, for we are friends and friends stick together… always.

He turns away from me and raises his light blue watery right arm towards the heavens and turning my head and following the direction to its end I can now see what he is anticipating, and yearning for.

Up above, I see that there is a bright white light cascading down the darkness and whilst at first I feel hope and joy, for this sign above, it is immediately ripped away and all I can feel is a sense of guilt and heightened uncertainly surges through my 'body'.

This emotional tornado of confusion is lost on me when I see that Chaos is ascending into the eye of the light and glancing at me with 'hand' extended outwards as it to say "are you coming?"; and despite the fact that I am afraid of what lies ahead, I gather up my energy, and with my elevated heart I begin to run towards him.

Perhaps now I can see the world again, is it still as beautiful as it was I wonder?

Or has it become something else? _Another cataclysm…?_

Suddenly I could feel the darkness coming closer even in this onslaught of light, circling me as a bird would its prey; regarding the ones they'd consider 'easy pickings'. Before I could even think of running away I felt myself being propelled from the misty grounds by an unknown force and ascending skyward.

I was just afew mere inches away from Chaos, I just had to reach that… little bit… more, and pull him back here with me! To save him from whatever darkness is coming for _us_?

_What is this and why now?_

Alias it was for nothing as his body disperses into green mist and disappears before my eyes.

And then there was light…

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**Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream**

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And thus ends the first chapter of this story arc!

**What will become of Tikal and Chaos now? **

Next time the action begins to warm up in the Knuckles centric, and I do love Knuckles... ^-^

I expect to update by months end seeing as this is a much longer chapter, depending of course on life and the random things it may bring me.


	2. Enveloped In Solitude

**Disclaimer: **_I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

_Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "__**Change The World"**__ by ARTIST Dream_

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**CHAPTER 2: Enveloped In Solitude**

[_NARRATOR POV_]

It was one of those dark and ominous nights over the planet called Mobius. The swirling clouds of grey wisps and the violent clash of booming thunder was all that could heard in the starry heavens above. With the clouds covering most of the sky it was hard to tell that it was even there at all but for brief moments, one with a sharp eye could make out the dark blue hues that made up the night, and amongst it shone several stars.

Something large and metallic was also hiding amongst the clouds…

But our story isn't to do with Mobius… yet. More to do with what lies above it.

This giant landmass that is always floating, that is speculated to be able to do circles around the planet in less than one month on some invisible determined course.

And to those in the know they'd truthfully tell you that this is the Floating Island, or the island of "angels" as depicted in ancient mobian myths.

The ancient legends told of a mighty race compared to angels and of emeralds with immense powers that they could reshape the very world; but out of no where, in the mere space of a night the entire race disappeared and no one to this day knows of what happened. Tragedy and power lust are the most accepted theories as to what it may have entailed…

Alias the island has been shrouded in mystery for many a millennia and hasn't been seen for nearly that long, at least not until two years ago when it became a battleground between Mobius' true blue hero, Sonic the Hedgehog and his fellow fighters at the heel of the royal Princess Sally of the forest Acorn Kingdom, and the despot tyrant Dr Robotnik.

Since then the mists of time has since seemly opened on the timeless isle and its existence has become public knowledge, including that of its guardian whom protects it's the islands own seven emeralds whose powers together keep the island afloat, and to keep all its other hidden treasures safe as well. This guardian was tricked by Robotnik, in what was his first encounter with any species outside of his island home, and the former proceeded to pit him against our very own Sonic the Hedgehog.

In the end whilst they managed to resolve their differences and kick Robotnik off the Island, a legendary rivalry had been born, one that may one say was that of fate.

This guardian was none other than Knuckles the Echidna, the last of the once proud race of echidnas that were said to have spawned and colonized the planet over and those that were revered as angelic like beings, in both power and intellect back in ancient times.

In the darkness of night, the fingers of mist that drifted down the mountain range in the islands centre gave the island a ghostly feel to it on this night. The mountain peak at the centre reigned high over the entire island, and surrounding it were the various sub topical regions of the island.

The majority of the island was populated with tropical jungle undergrowth which emitted humid air and was home to many exotic animal species and treasures. This region was known as the Angel Island Zone and one of the most largest and enigmatic of the islands regions. A more normal forest region spawns off from it, famous for its variety of mushroom and plant life; and is naturally called the Mushroom Valley Zone.

The central mountain was known as Mt Fate with other names for its peaks being lost in times chronicles for the time being, the former separated two of the most diverse and polar opposite regions, in fact the only thing that they shared in common was that it was next to impossible for most living beings to live there, some did of course but most didn't.

The first of these was a large plane of sandy terrain with pretty much nothing within it except for the rare ancient pile of ruin, a pyramid here or there… This desert spawning hundreds of miles with colossal heat surges was known other than the Sandopolis Zone.

Its opposite was a frozen tundra of many miles and deathly low temperatures, and this in turn covered another side of the mountain with snow all year round; the Ice Cap Zone certainly lived up to its chilling name.

A majestic waterfall spew fall out of a large crevice in Mt Fate and kept water aplenty in the form of a large lake amongst the jungle terrain, which has no real name as of yet.

A bleak wasteland also lies at the end of the desert, but remains much a mystery.

Beneath the island's surface, miles down, lies what would be known to us as its water works, with passageways of ancient instruments controlling the mechanics and water supply to the whole island. This large and water filled ancient city like structure is the Hydro City Zone.

Various ruins back on the surface hint at what the echidna race of eons ago may have been like; it has several names, the only recorded one being the Marble Garden Zone.

A lost region to the island used to float opposite to the main island but was destroyed a year or so ago; this ancient ruin was called the Sky Sanctuary Zone and has since disappeared off the map altogether.

The very under half of the island was formed of vertical stalagmite like rock tendrils, with various holes that lead into the large and mysterious catacombs of the island.

Within the various mountain peaks lies a blistering hot furnace of molten magma and volcanic ashes and rock, it has been theorised to alike the Hydro City to retain a function to the island as a whole in regards to controlling the overall temperature. Whilst this is slightly true, this Lava Reef Zone also serves as a last defence against intruders in order to protect that which lies at the islands very heart; the Hidden Palace and the Emerald Chamber within…

This heart of the island which controls the rest is also unsurprisingly filled with the biggest of mysteries; this ancient palace of crystal most likely was populated by the very highest status of the echidna and probably to keep the Chaos Emeralds at its core safe.

The Emerald Chamber houses the seven Chaos Emeralds with the Master Emerald having higher power than the rest, the chamber itself is alit with many ancient devices and tubes, and it is here that many secrets lie and also the main point of call of Knuckles the Guardian.

In fact just recently it has undergone a slight change of… location.

And now we shall see of the events that are to happen on this night as the storm begins.

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**FLOATING ISLAND / THE RISEN EMERALD SHRINE **

[_KNUCKLES POV_]

It was just after midnight, and with the raging storm of nature brewing up outside you'd have thought that everyone would be trying to sleep or at least be inside wouldn't you? But this simply wasn't my style, for being at one with nature as long as I've been, made surviving it more of a mere annoyance at best, and also truth be told, I couldn't sleep.

"Ughh… this is one foul minded storm. Wonder who pissed off Mother Nature this time?" I grunted in annoyance to no one in particular.

Whilst I could put up with all the weather slamming into me right now, I was all unusually tensed up. And this all only seemed ominous, an omen of terrible things to come and that only made me squeeze my fists together even moreso.

You see, I had been mediating on one of the emerald shrine pedestals at the time before the storm started up; and had been again thinking those thoughts. The only thoughts that were important to me – those being of my origins and purpose in life.

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[_NARRATOR POV_]

Even through the rain you could still make out his figure; Knuckles bore an anthropomorphic humanoid appearance except that his body was a powerful red crimson.

His head and his shoes were noticeably bigger in comparison to his body, with the shoes being of a metallic nature. These shoes were rounded with a smooth texture, encased with silver lined plating for the soles with an upper curved outer lining of bound strong yellow metal. A rectangular extruding cast of metal with six firmly bolted screws partway into it was then fixed to the top of the shoe itself.

Being a warrior guardian, he wore big white gloves, tightly fitted, with two extruded spikes marking as his own knuckles. And with Knuckles having seemly never taking these gloves of his off it was hard to tell whether he had any real hands at all or to what was the key to the gloves pointed knuckles' strength. It was another unusual body note to say the least.

He also bared a white crescent moon design on his chest which was to show of his status as guardian.

Like most mobian species he was complete with a tail, and unlike Sonic's it was more erected at a ninety degree angle, and slightly thicker to boot.

And also flaring down from his head, again unlike Sonic's quills, he had thick red dreadlocks and these enabled him to glide safely through the air.

Knuckles continued with his thoughts as the winds rowed around him.

"Another omen…? Is this what my life entails, just being the lone guardian of the island?" his thoughts echoed throughout his head, _I mean why me, why did I have to do all this?_

Whilst his role as guardian was as absolute necessary, it still hadn't brought him any answers. It was like there was something more beyond all this that he just couldn't understand.

When Sonic and his group blasted into his life along with that nutcase Robotnik, it had only brought all the more questions to his mind. It made his heart reek with something unknown, something he couldn't put his hand on to analyse… and squash it.

"I have no time for such feelings, whatever they may be. I am guardian of this island and for this I must be strong, and those with feelings can't be strong, they only get in the way!"

He thought to himself, before getting up and looking out at the storm once more. Whilst that was what he thought, conflicting thoughts still lingered and bothered him…

Mere miles away, tearing through the air and the jungle undergrowths was a pulsating blue blur, and the figures slim lined body made it a dazzling mirror of reflected light.

"Chaos Infra Red on now" the being mimed to itself quietly.

The world became a mixture of rainbow colours, with every living thing and those that weren't having their own unique energy signature, with the strongest hues and thus energy readings coming due north.

"_Perfect…_" the figure snarled to himself, out loud this time. His objective was right ahead, and then this silly subterfuge mission would be over. Heck it'd already screwed with his plated body, the sludgy wet mud had seen to it that he was now a half brown blued freak.

Pass the initial cursing at his spoiled paintwork however was something else in conjunction with the missions approaching end, with excitement roaring through his metallic body (if you could say that at all), his booster engines flared into life and propelled itself forward at mach speed, almost the very speed of sound.

It was this craftsmanship that had gone into his renewed design that hid his presence from the troublesome echidna guardian, and whilst he was sure that he could take him, it was on his master's orders that he wasn't out to play this time.

Snarling again with simmering rage, the metallic being continued its way to its goal:

**The Master Emerald**

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[_KNUCKLES POV_]

I, unaware of the approaching danger was continuing to reflect.

It seems that things have just gotten worse lately; first that creep Zachary*** **came and almost reduced the island to sinking into the ocean AND ended up tricking me, and now this storm" I said in a fit of rage and glumness, circling my eyes all the while in every direction to inspect the storm. Something just wasn't right about tonight... something is stinking up my nose. _Man I'm starting to sound like that doofus Sonic…_ Not good, _at all_.

"It doesn't make it any easier to know that the first of my kind returned to the island, despite being an evil fiend, and then I go and kill him!" I pause and gasp for breath… with nothing but the screaming winds and pounding rain in-between.

"Just what does that make me, a guardian, or a killer without remorse?"

My body shuddered at the very thought of it, as a guardian I am expected to protect the island and its treasures at all costs, but life is just as precious. This, I know to be true of myself and my ancestors…

My body froze over, I would call it nerves, and others would say it was that of guilt. And they wouldn't be far wrong would they; if Zachary is really dead then it was all down to me.

Then again, if I can glide then he can too, in retrospect. _Oh let Aurora say it's true, I can't let my ancestors down... Not until the day that they return from the stars!_

With this notion, I was primed with adrenaline and excitement; it's up to me to work towards that day. That is my goal, and I won't let anyone stand in my way…

"Still… just a reminder that I need to get the islands security systems back into shape, as I don't want another unwelcome visitor dropping by…" I said thoughtfully, again out loud.

A sharp smashing sound resounded nearby, jolting me.

"Unexpectedly?" I uttered incredulously, though it came out just above a whisper, as my eyes enlarged with surprise.

"I just had to open my big mouth didn't I," I sighed, my thoughts ceasing for now.

Using my hands I pushed myself off from the pillar of stone and stood up straight, assuming my fighting pose; my legs far apart to maintain balance and form, my muscles tensing at my recall in order to take out whatever's out there.

_As guardian my strength is the very best, this rogue won't get past me_, I quickly thought_. _

My ears suddenly primed onto a deafening howl, one would mistake it for the encircling storm but there was no doubt about it. This was no storm, this was alive and… it was ANGRY!

A sudden blow to my upper cranium temporarily dislodged my thoughts; the thing had been behind me the whole time! But that would mean… oh no the Chaos Emeralds!

That sound before sounded just like when I and Sonic smashed one of that egghead's 'Badnik' robots, it was made partly of glass, the emeralds are made of crystal… so they would make a similar sound! Something broke them and it would pay, fire raged through my heart and fuelled my strength.

I spun around to face my adversary and stare it down before pummelling it to oblivion, expecting yet another bleeding robot or similar abomination of nature. What I saw was neither… it was more a monster of nature.

It wasn't a robot at all; in fact it was made almost entirely of water and was just slightly taller than myself. It has a definite shape to it, and had these eerie almond shaped green eyes, filled with menace and dare my heart deceive me so, but some slight confusion?

It had two thick water tendrils coming out of the head structure and a short 'helmet' extrusion on top, and floating within it was its very brain, a small pink slimy brain. Even with all of my strength and will it still made me feel quite sicken to the bone at the very sight of the being's entirely, I mean just what the hell was this thing anyway?

Those eyes cast me a wicked glare and then widened, filled with rage. It lifted up one of its water made claw arms above its head and preceded to swipe at me again.

I used all my exerting force to leap off the ground to avoid it, but I realised my mistake too late, for I had let down my guard and the creature had pulled a vanishing act on me.

With it gone I let my eyes wander to the sight behind where it had once been; the Master Emerald was shattered and in pieces on the shrine's floor. The other Chaos Emerald's were as of yet untouched by the creature's might. My head was spinning with emotions; again it seemed that I had failed in duty.

But I knew that I had to protect the other Chaos Emeralds and so I gravely and regrettably flicked the emergency protocol mechanism on the shrine's base console, ejecting the Chaos Emeralds to safety.

They like the Master Emerald shards before them, lit up the sky as they rained down to the face of Mobius like shooting stars, causing my stomach to twist in grave guilt.

But before I could formulate a plan of action to retrieve them, it was then I noticed that the storm had since stopped, and all was quiet, you could even hear the morning songs of birds if you listened well enough, that and the slithering of… Wait, did I say slithering?

My earlier mistake had caught up and paid me back; the creature had formed its body into that of a small water puddle and unleashed a torrent of water from behind. That was all I could remember before I fell into nothing but blackness.

Had I of looked even further into the sky then a giant metal airship would eclipse my vision, bearing the small but visible face of an old enemy…

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**FLOATING ISLAND AIRSPACE / MYSTERIOUS AIR VESSEL **

[_NARRATOR POV_]

The spike headed figure of cold hard metal, covered now in drying mud, had now reached the end of the line; through this door was his creator and master and upon the telling of the mission completed, he'd most likely again be put back again into sleeping status or just be made inactive again in simple terms.

This heated a simmering rage inside the smooth blue metal being, one that grew nearly every other day, one filled to the brim with resentment and anger. The anger of being put down, of seemly being inferior, and this robot certainly had no other equals!

It was almost as if the bad doctor was afraid of him, of the power he wielded. Could it be true? And if so, what could that be of benefit to him…?

If he had a mouth you could have sworn that he was cocking a slight smile at these thoughts but he instantly regained his cold and still stature and upon entering the keypad code, the metal door slid open sideways and he stepped slowly into the room before him.

The room ahead was rather large but the lack of large light sources made the gloomy darkness all the more greater and it made the room look more cramp and smaller than it actually was. The only real lights were those of the huge computer interface, divided into smaller sub screens, and these currently displayed the Floating Island from different angles.

The one screen of the unconscious guardian certainly brought some glee to his face.

Another of course had the supposed water god that the doctor had been going on about lately being caught in one of his prisoner contain pods aboard the vessel, Chaos being yet another ploy to defeat his eternal rival; that blue cocky goody two shoes hedgehog!

He didn't understand the point when he could have swiped all the emeralds there and then but he dared question Robotnik's orders out loud, he couldn't afford that punishment.

For now he'd sit back and watch the show, where this Chaos freak would surely fall.

And then thought Metal Sonic, _it will be my turn to play with that pesky rat of a hedgehog; I'll torture him and all his friends until he dies!_

The master in question was of course the evil tyrant, Dr Robotnik. He sat in his large chair with his grey gloved hands pressed together in anticipation for his minion's success.

Robotnik was an obese and menacing man, his suit having a black and yellow crossroad pattern of stripes and at the centre was a large black circle which also fitted as a secret handy belt activator. The upper torso of the fitted clothing was a blood crimson red with a black bottom which stretched into a grey pair of trouser tops. Under all this were his metallic boots, which sported a majority black with some red patches in design.

As Metal Sonic approached him he lifted up his left arm, which was completely encased in metal and served to make it a strong weapon of last defence if need be. The other arm had a short black sleeve and at the end had his large smelly hand in a morbidly grey glove.

His eyes were covered with hi-tech specs and thus remained a horrible mystery.

"Ah, you have returned my dear Metal Sonic, I see that you were most successful," Robotnik cackled in glee, his ghastly smile open and widening like an insane man.

"_I would never fail you master,_" droned Metal Sonic in return.

"Indeed. And now that Chaos is under my control I can begin the quest for his seven emeralds and turn him into the perfect god of destruction!" boomed Robotnik.

"_But sir… couldn't we have just mustered the use of the islands own other emeralds to awaken the water beasts' true form, why the slow route with the ones on Mobius?_" Metal Sonic replied.

In the corner, the assistant to the evil doctor's schemes, his nephew Snively muttered "Stupid fool" to himself. He was of a very small size and wore mostly dark green clothing; his large black beady eyes were filled with malicious intent. He also sported little hair and was almost completely bald, save four to five stray dark brown hairs.

He held no care for anyone, especially the rust bucket of bolts that he always referred to the metal copy of Sonic as. Well at least in his mind, he wasn't THAT stupid.

Robotnik continued to talk in his high booming voice that echoed throughout the room.

"Metal Sonic, with this amount of promise in hand I have no need for such rush. I very much intend to conquer that island and muster the rest of the emeralds for my own devices, but for now I want to have my fun. Chaos will rampage and spread destruction across the face of Mobius, no doubt the princess and the hedgehog's groupie will come to try and stop me, but where would the fun be without them, ha-ha!" Robotnik said in his sly, composed yet very evil voice of his.

_Hmm, hardy the grand answer I was expecting_, Metal Sonic thought internally. _But alias, this ensures the downfall of this plan, the stupid master, there is no need for such subterfuge, I could take Sonic and his friends with my mere brilliance. Hehe, let the water beast fall I say._

"… Chaos will bring them to me and I'll torture the furries until they die. Maybe I'll give the hedgehog the pleasure of seeing all his comrades' roboticized heart and soul, ha-ha! What a sight that'd be…" said Robotnik, smiling still with that ugly foul smile.

Robotnik then swivelled on his chair to look at two screens focusing on the Floating Island, the first of which was positioned just above the island itself.

"Hmm it looks that the gap in the islands force field in falling all the more with time. It seems that Knuckles just isn't up to the scratch of being the guardian of anything, what a gullible hard headed twit. I'll soon get my vengeance on you and the other rodent for destroying my beloved Death Egg, just you wait, and this is just the start of your eternal nightmares!" snarled Robotnik to himself.

The Floating Island you see also had a force field that acted as extra defence and could also render the whole place invisible to the eye. The last year or two with the war against Robotnik coming to the island and Zachary's recent attack however had left the security systems and defences little less than great. Metal Sonic had snuck in through the widening gap in the force field and carried out his missionary objection without interruption.

The second of the screens had the still unconscious Knuckles, and the sight still brought Robotnik's booming laughter to the room, it left Metal Sonic and the assistant of his, Snively, whom was in the corner minding his own business, ear's ringing.

"Metal Sonic, it is time for you to return to your quarters. I am going to check on our new guest," said Robotnik.

"… _Of course master. Always glad to be in your presence,_" the Sonic-crafted robot said, bowing before taking his leave. _It was time to be shoved aside again and put into status…_ It thought internally, naturally ignored.

As he did so, Metal Sonic heard Robotnik scream for that puny assistant of his to go with him. _What a little weakling, such a scheming nuisance. Robotnik should be more wary of that human…_ were the thoughts conjured up in his memory databanks.

The robot entered his quarters, which had bright, red letters above it stating his serial name and model name atop of it, and as he entered his systems began to decrease in activity.

Metal Sonic thought no more as once again he was put away into sleeping status, ready for the next time he was needed. And the robot certainly couldn't wait to fight that hedgehog again, he just knew that when he woke up that Chaos will be gone and dusted and he'd shine once again.

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Falling from the sky, the large mass that was the Floating Island slammed down hard into the mobian ocean causing a 30 metre high tidal wave to disperse from its location. Without the Master Emerald to control the other emeralds, the balance was broken and it could float no more.

With it broken and the echidna guardian still out cold from his encounter with Chaos it looked imminent that the island would eventually meet its fate at the bottom of the ocean. Because unless the missing emerald pieces were recovered and the Master Emerald restored in a few days, then that unfortunately would be the angelic island's final fate…

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**Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream**

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And thus ends the second chapter of this story arc!

**With Chaos on the loose, who better to call than the Freedom Fighters themselves?**

**That's right, Sonic and co debut next chapter as the interlocking action begins.**

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* For more on Zachary and Knuckles' meeting, read the UK Sonic the Comic's issues 65-68, I'll be covering that story once I'm done with this one also (in my own way of course). And as with STC, there are two sets of emeralds, and this saga will deal with Mobian ones.

And yes I know that I didn't include a description of the Carnival Night Zone, it's just that story wise I haven't completely decided what to do with it so it very well be added in the future depending.

PS if anyone could provide any tips or tools of the trade for speaking from the self prospective it would be appreciated, out of everything in this chapter writing that was what I found the hardest, moreover to make it sound varied and interesting?

How to delete the annoying line breakers in Word would be a nice asset to my writing knowledge too. Oh, and action scenes, I'm a newbie at everything but the simple narrative lol.

All in all though I'm quite proud of this little segment, hopefully everyone else will agree too ^-^

Again I'll probably update by months end depending on things in life etc.


	3. All You Need Is A Bit Of Chaos

**Chaos is now in Robotnik's hands and is set to bring disaster to all whom stand in the doctor's way. I think it's about time that the Freedom Fighters are called into action, and thus the first of the normal group centrics begins! **

**Disclaimer: **_I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "**Change The World"** by ARTIST Dream

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**CHAPTER 3: All You Need Is A Bit Of Chaos**

Planet Mobius, a former paradise turned into a war zone.

This war originated in the beginning between the mobian 'furries' and the Homo sapiens, for peace, space and even the very right to live.

King Maxmillian Acorn of the Acorn Kingdom which reigned in Mobotropolis through the bloodshed and loss managed to win on out, but in the end they lost a far greater price in return. To the man that they'd allowed help them win and develop devices for that purpose, unknowingly having already sold their freedom and become his pawns in his game plan.

This evil scientist, the scorned rogue of his own kind was Julian Ivo Kintobor. After the Great War he'd immediately strike and successfully completed his coup of King Max and his beloved kingdom, even doing away with the king in circumstances as of yet unknown.

He took the name Dr Robotnik and renamed the city "Robotropolis." He proceeded to practically kill all life in the city and replace it all with machines and robots, some robots being roboticized Mobians who had fought against his rule.

That was over a decade ago.

Still resistance groups still fight for freedom and one of the most well known and important groups of all was the Knothole Freedom Fighters, led by the daughter of the former King Max, the one Princess Sally Alicia Acorn.

This small band has since successfully become a thorn in the evil tyrant's hide, especially with the addition of two special mobians later on.

These two, along with the rest of the gang are set to become legendary; and these special individuals are none other than the technical whiz kidMiles 'Tails' Prower and the dude with attitude and supersonic speed, Sonic the Hedgehog.

* * *

**Knothole Village **

This small and peaceful village community serves not only as a sanctuary for those who oppose and wish to be free of Robotnik's influence but also as the base of operations for one of the top groups in fighting to overthrow him.

Naturally it is hidden and obscure from Robotnik's eyes, at least for the time being; this woodland village lies in the Great Forest, an enormous and dense beautiful forest that covers a couple thousand of square miles and is ironically only a stone's throw away (give or take the wastelands around and in-between) from Robotropolis itself.

The huts are hand-crafted out of wood, straw and other materials and some even have their own particular scent such as that of subtle burnt wood to pine wood etc. Most are large enough to provide a home for small families but some have had extensions to provide more space when and if it is needed.

Some of the biggest homes of course are used by the freedom fighters themselves, with Princess Sally's being slightly bigger with a unique spherical and etched design for show, and this is situated to the north of the village.

The main hut, the one used as the operations base is at the centre of the village.

In fact, right now a meeting is being held by the strong willed leader, Sally, but it seems that someone is missing. But across the village if you listened hard enough, you could hear a very loud and familiar snoring… and that someone was in for a rude awakening right about now.

* * *

**Knothole Village / Sonic's Place / 9.44 AM**

A medium sized cabin made out the super blue hero's home and was in actual fact spacious enough for a small kept family; the given word round the village was that it was to remind him of his former home and that of his well made family, now all gone thanks to Robotnik.

Regardless he only had the bare necessities, the small kitchen and microwave, the TV and perfect sitting position all set up in the living room (as you do) and a medium sized bathroom upstairs complete with aqua silver like tiling and fitted with a bath and glass panelled shower.

The only other room on the upper floor was of course Sonic's room, and it was the largest of all (second only to the bathroom and maybe the living room TV viewing area); it was also like many teens rooms, the messiest! Worn out sneakers and small garment like jackets and gloves were spewed out across the floor, with only one or two 'suits' or actual articles of clothing kept over and rescued from his former home, now burnt out and no more…

The overhead light was made up of a simple candle instead of a more expensive and unnecessary electric one; underneath the mountain of clothes actually lied a floor, one smooth and of a brown creamy complexion and in the centre of the room was an orange slightly ruffled carpet mat.

He had one set of drawers which he scarcely bothered with (unless company came over) and a larger wardrobe like set of drawers with 4 shelves on the opposite side of the room; on here he kept various collections of his over the years, some stuffed dolls and that, basically as a memento to his childhood and a place to put things of importance to him.

Also across from his bed was his bigger and best TV all set-up for all of his many gaming consoles that he loved to play with friends now and again. The bed was of a simple rectangular structure with slightly curved sides at the end, it was situated next to the aforementioned drawers which also had another lamp shade in the form of a candle next to it, the pillowcase and sheets were white and the covers were an emerald green.

* * *

And right now if you were to enter this room you'd be rewarded with the slightly unpleasant sight of a foot or two complete with a lanky dirty sneaker sock hanging off the foot creeping out from under the covers. His arms were wrapped around the covers, still shrouded like always in his gloves and his blue streamlined spiked head at his side continuing with his hideous snoring; it's needless to say that the hedgehog whilst a great hero was still a teen and a lazy fart at the best of times.

And boy was he in for a rude awakening… right about now. Moments later a small orange blur with spinning tails dashed into the room and bringing his run to a halt at the bedside, put his hands to surround his mouth and knelt down and shouted…

"**SONIC**!" shouted the two tailed orange fox creature, looking desperate.

"Ughh what's that racket, can't a cool sweet dude get some shuteye around here…?" mumbled the half awake hedgehog rubbing his eyes, and slightly incoherently.

"Sonic… come on there's no time for an ego trip now, Princess Sally called a meeting and it's already started!" said Tails with a small childish smile propping up on his face as he said it, extending a helping hand to his bedridden best friend.

Sonic opened his eyes suddenly in sheer panic; _man oh man, how I definitely don't want to make Sally mad (again). That'd spoil all chance I have with her, _he thought cheekily.

Whilst Sonic was speeding around the room looking for his best looking sneakers and getting washed up at fast as he could, Tails, his best mate couldn't help but laugh at his antics.

Tails was a fox like Kitsune mobian with a bright orange fur colouring and a small tuff of white fur on his chest. The most interesting and best assets that he sported however were his two tails, with orange fur complete with white tips at the ends; they looked a lot like large paintbrushes if you looked at them long enough. These strange genetically oddities benefited the young kid in enabling him to (with practice) to fly for certain periods of time and were a valuable addition to Sonic's strength and speed back in the day.

He remembered fondly the day they met and how he'd saved the young fox's life, and from that day forth they had stuck together and battled against Robotnik and his cronies in the west region of Mobius. From there on the duo had travelled and eventually joined up with the Freedom Fighters of Knothole, and were in service to the princess herself! Although Tails moreover saw past the title and treated her as family, with only the simple pet name 'Aunt Sally'.

They weren't the only additions to the group however; they had the young pink hedgehog, Amy Rose, join sometime ago as well. She loved Sonic A LOT and also made sure he knew; and Tails chuckled again to himself at how fast Sonic would run from her compared to anything else.

He sighed at the memory it brought up; _it's too bad that she's gone now; she was a good friend to me too… I wonder where she left to? I hope that I didn't do anything wrong_, Tails thought. _I hope we can all see her again soon and that it'll all be ok again_, he concluded with a smile on his face.

The shower noise had stopped he noted with his ears, _it's about time!_ The bathroom door as if on cue then slammed on open and then Sonic, looking freshly clean and his skin only radiated even further his usual positive upbeat attitude; he stepped out now finally ready to go.

Sonic was now sporting his essential sneakers, which were slightly triangular shaped but comfy fitting shoes with a splash or two red stripes with an interceding white stripe, and finished with two white cuff links on top. He treasured his accessories a lot and it showed when one particular princess would always scorn him for never taking off his prized gloves and sneakers at things such as dinner etc.

How Sonic always loved winding her up like that, he thought with a chuckle.

_Still no time for reminiscing, if Sal has called up a meeting then something must be up. It's about time that I got to kick some more Robuttnik's hide. _

With that final thought, he switched off the rooms light and followed Tails down the spiralled staircase, and then carefully opened the front door and proceeded to run out into the mobian sunshine in pursuit of his friend, already far ahead of him.

* * *

**Knothole Village / 9.55 AM**

Outside the sun was indeed shining, it seeped through the woodland trees and illuminated beautifully the small bustlingly village. No one at first glance would even possibility realize that this place was in all actually a mere sanctuary, for those many who lost their lives and homes when Mobotropolis was taken and to those simply came in order to seek refuge from the noise and war outside of the Great Forest.

_Even so it has become like a second home to all of us_, Sonic thought. _And even me_, bringing a warm smile to his face and warmth to radiate around his heart.

_Even though we have lost so much, we still carry on living. It makes me wonder… what would happen to the village when we… if we ever do retake Mobotropolis?_ The thought had bewildered him now and again, and he didn't bear thinking about it.

He closed his eyes, _well that's still a long way off but together with the others we WILL make it happen_, taking a quick breath he then ventured out one foot first from his front doorstep into his very own second home, Knothole Village.

The ground was soft yet firm to the touch and enabled him to proceed at a hurried pace through the village grounds, _Tails should be just ahead…_ he thought with his eyes darting around.

In passing, he noted that he wasn't at the Great Oak Tree.

_Well of course he wouldn't be would he; at the speed the little nipper was going at he'd have got to Sally's place by now and be requesting tea and biscuits._ He own stomach almost fluttered at the thought. _But then he is just a kid, but one of the coolest around for hanging with me, and his tech wiz skills aren't too damn handy to have around neither _In his mind and heart, Tails was his little bro through and through.

The Great Oak Tree sheer magnitude gave it the privilege of being made the entry point into the hidden forest settlement. It was formed of a wooden slide that connected to a higher portion of forest land, this effectively put Knothole in a lower ridge in the forest and with the tunnel being hidden in a secluded and moss covered tree stump, it had so far worked wonders and they'd had little problem with Robotnik and his forces in discovering their hideaway.

Shifting his body around, Sonic continued to walk on forward towards the Freedom Fighter Outpost or to be more precise the HQ, it was then that he caught sight of Tails just a few houses away.

_Tails is talking with Rosie eh? Well, I may as well say hello too._

"Hey Tails!" Sonic shouted whilst running and closing the distance between them.

"About time Sonic, what were you doing? Picking flowers for Aunt Sally?" the fox teased.

"As if… I was just doing alil thinking, nothing major." he simply stated in return.

"Thinking? You? That's not like you," Tails stated in half disbelief, half teasing.

"Yes I do… Now and again. Shessh… it's always me getting ridiculed," he said in a slight disgruntled tone.

"Well I think that it's good to have a good old think now and again, it keeps the brain working and your heart in the right place Sonic my boy". Rosie said with her warming smile.

This caused Sonic to turn his head around in her direction. "Yeah maybe Rosie, by the way sorry, good morning to you!" he said all too quickly, coming out in a blur.

"It's no problem Sonic. Now don't you two have things to be doing?" Rosie said in a chuckle dismissively to Sonic before turning to the pair, her eyes twinkling above her spectacles knowingly as she spoke. She had silvery white hair all tucked up in a bun, brown clay like skin of a typical chipmunk and light but deep blue eyes; and her body was wrapped up tightly in her usual red cloak to complete her motherly look.

"Oh wait yeah! Tails we have to get to Sally's pronto!" Sonic exclaimed out loud, dashing off abruptly from his position.

"Yep… we were supposed to be there ages ago. If you could just keep your mind focused for one second then maybe we wouldn't be up to our heads in it now Sonic!" said Tails in a childish dramatic voice as he ran off to catch up with him.

"Rosie, we'll have to talk later! You know the life of us freedom fighters! Busy, busy, busy!" Sonic shouted at he jogged backwards, cracked as a humorous joke, coupled with a comedic grin on his face back at the fading view of Rosie before turning around and pushing speed for the meeting rendezvous.

Rosie watched the pair run off with sadness in her eyes.

_Yes I know exactly what you mean Sonic. It just pains me to see such vibrant young life be tarnished with the ugly and violent side of life, of being stuck in this war. Children shouldn't have to fight battles and have the world's fate on their shoulders, it's just not right!_

Rosie sniffled as a slight tear coming to her burning eyes and wiping it away, decided that if such young brave children could be strong and fight then she'd have to stay strong and be brave for them too, and be there for them when they needed it. She'd promised the King himself that she'd look after them all, especially Sally, and she wasn't going to fail in that promise, not to a single one of them…

Newly reassured with her thoughts, Rosie then turned away from the scene and walked slowly towards one of the neighbouring houses, it was time to look after some more of the little rascals, although these couldn't handle themselves alike the freedom fighters just yet. And it would be many years before they would be able of such feats. Rosie prayed silently that they wouldn't need ever to, and that this horrible nightmare would end and allow Mobius to prosper once again with peace.

* * *

**Knothole Village / Freedom Fighter HQ / 9.57 AM**

The operations base at first glance looks nothing more than a slightly large woodland cabin, the kind that you would expect on a nature trail for stopping visitors and guides. Inside the warmth and mild scent of pine is the first thing that would come to your senses, one could immediately feel welcome here and yet here decisions of important magnitudes were made.

The smooth polished wooden floor and the slightly rough to feel walls of bark acted as a barrier of sorts to the outside world and allowed the freedom fighters to think clearly without fear of interruption.

The walls were decorated with detailed maps and schematics for the known layout of Robotropolis as well as some leftover from the construction of Knothole, just so that any future additions can implemented with minimal effort and maximum success.

Long green wooded bookcases lined the walls, stacked one by another and were filled with books on many centuries and topics: Mobian Anatomy, Medicine, Herbals, War, Atlases, Art, Music, Star Charts and History books on various focal points in Mobius' history.

There was an upper floor accessed by a spiral staircase in the corner of the room, of which a painting hung of a handsomely middle aged man complete with a crown of many jewels and a sceptre of status in his right hand, looking all the while a majestic king of old. This valuable portrait was one of the few things that was saved from the fallout of the war with Robotnik; and was of the one and only King Maxmillian Acorn whom disappeared many years ago.

The upper floor served as a lookout post and allowed the point of horizon over the entire village, which was handy in case of an invasion force, if ever there was one. The roofing was spherical and was split about halfway through its dome shape, like the top of an egg being removed and the insides left completely vacant. It also functioned as a communications point, with the combined efforts of Nicole and Rotor having turned it into a basic satellite dish of sorts (it's still in the testing stages as we speak). Thus the techno stuff from downstairs was connected also to this upper space and acted as a secondary meet and discuss point.

The final items of interest were back downstairs, and this comprised of the meeting table and of the various computer screens and setup embedded within the north wall of the building. As of right now, seated at the cream circular shaped, flat seated chairs are four people.

The first one sat nearest to the main door was a light creamy brown coloured mobian rabbit female, and as one would expect she had long but thinly skinned structured ears and the cute white fluffed curls either side of her face and the pink nose that typical bunnies would have. In a sharp and striking difference however, half of her body was pure hard silvery metal with a slight hue of purple from one of her arms down to her very large feet and its toes.

This metallic arm served her best as her prime weapon, doubling her physical prowess to many a mobian, and was fitted with a spherical orb, and two dividing arm sections connected via a narrow thin like tube. The metal casting was greater in width going down the legs and enabled Bunnie much in terms of balance. And like any bunny, Miss Bunnie Rabbot could perform great leaps of faith with her spring-like leg mechanisms; always handy for those quick getaway situations.

Her upper torso was fitted perfectly with a purple heart shaped leotard and secured to her waist with a thin black belt; her brown cream & milky skin complimented her large engaging green eyes and purple eyelids, not only making this bunny female a charming dazzling delight, but with her metal extensions, a kickass force of metallic nature too!

"Looks like sugah hog is late again Sal. Should I go fetch him?" Bunnie said with a sigh, her metal right leg propped up and laying lazily across the table face, her head resting at her side into her normal arm's hand, the remainder of her body resting on the tables level.

And oh yes, Bunnie was also well known for her southern belle accent, being from the southern region of Mobius. This accent also put her quite on par, if abit of a coincidence, with a certain other fellow in the team…

"No, that won't be necessary Bunnie. I've sent Tails already to get that no good lazy bum up… They'll be here any moment now and boy is that numbskull gonna get it…" said Princess Sally in an agitated tone, bubbling anger noticeable in her words. She quickly shifted the tone off with her usual fixed 'working hard' look and turned back around to setting things up with her trusty supercomputer, NICOLE.

"Well put princesse, as always. I wish that de pompous hedgehog would hurry up, I'm simply dying to know what ma princesse has uncovered," said Antoine in his upper class and smug like French accent, softening his words whilst gazing at the princess in question.

A few dragging seconds passed; "Ah-ha… C'est est all very exciting isn't it?" he said again in a slight nervous whisper, whilst shifting his head back and forth for any responses.

Sitted next to Bunnie was undoubtedly the male in question, and as one may already have guessed he can speak French (although whether it's any good or not… is another thing entirely), and a person who regarded himself highly. But was also one of mannerisms and of good actuate in it's entirely.

This clay skin coloured coyote was seemly blessed, what with a neat and tidy set of ludicrous blonde locks that were edged firmly into his scalp and piercing blue eyes, many would say he was very handsome. Alias, whilst his actuate was highly superior to that of most young people in the current age, his lack of confidence and wimpy-ness, however, are two of his diminishing qualities that unfortunately for the most part, outshine his deeper qualities…

His form of dress included a clean and prim blue jacket with red lining connecting vertically across the chest area, with red hand chuffs. It was supposed to be a soldier like uniform but it wasn't always easy to see that, coupled with Antoine's so called 'nerves of steel' and by Sonic at least, has been compared to a renegade camp scouts uniform on at least three occasion… To finish, he also wore 'clown like' (another Sonic remark) red boots with red cufflinks at the top.

"Yes Antoine it will be, simply nothing can get pass these computer babies of mine without my knowledge." said the walrus techno geek, Rotor, with a prideful smile and laugh.

"Especially with Nicole and Sally's input, it's unbeatable!" he boomed with glances at the two in question thankfully.

Rotor being a Walrus wasn't the most active of the team (although he came along now and again) and served instead as the Freedom Fighter's technology developer and communications man. The communicators which they all used in order to keep in contact with each other were fairly new but were quite advanced for the current time, in being able to filter out certain spectrum waves that could interfere with signals and even some weather conditions.

The techno teen himself had a thick light blue hide, medium white sized tusks, large cumbersome feet and his head was covered with a yellow flicked back baseball cap. His 'claws' were a dark shade of silvery grey and he had a brown orangey strapped multi-case across his strong clay coloured chest.

As for the princess herself, she was a half squirrel/chipmunk variety of mobian with an obvious feminine figure, and brown creamy skin. Her short auburn hair panned out in a large, front fringe, whilst the rest covered the back of her head down to shoulder length. The small, azure eyes she was born with shone ever with strength & determination, and yet leaked a deep sadness behind them at times. For dress, Sally wore a small blue fitted jacket with side pockets and equally fitted blue coloured boots.

At this current moment in time she was confirming the information that she found out with NICOLE to present to the rest of the Freedom Fighters in due course; NICOLE being her pocket super computer sent back (unknowingly to everyone) in order to help them win out against Robotnik by the Princesses' own future self.

"Nicole, what are the results of the scans?" asked Sally in her strong, yet even leader tone.

"_With the scans complete Sally, I can confirm that the information that I picked up with my security networks is 100% fact,_" the supercomputer muttered plainly.

"Then it is time then… Thanks NICOLE," the princess said with a grave tone.

* * *

Suddenly, a burst of wind filled the room as the front door came flying open and then shut itself with a bang as quickly as it'd opened, causing everyone to cover their eyes and for Sally to groan in annoyance. When all was calm, you could now see the duo of Sonic and Tails sitting down at the table, with slight nervousness apparent on their faces.

"Ah, Sonic… HOW GOOD OF YOU TO COME JOIN US!" the princess shouted with anger in the hedgehog's overall direction, leaving Tails to quiver with some fear.

"Sal, I can explain…" he began in a pleading tone.

"Oh, there is no need Sonic, I can already deduce that you overslept _again_. Am I right?" the princess said with a firm and knowing manner, her arms crossed and her eyes blazing.

This caused Sonic to gulp with slight anxiousness, before speaking again.

"Well… I… umm... yes I overslept again. But I won't do it again, really Sally! If I had known that something big was going down than you know that'd be there, right?" he said in his confident and sincere voice, his eyes directly locking with Sally's in the meantime.

"I know that Sonic but you have been here for what, three years now? And you still act like a child, and not the adult you should be becoming. This is serious business and I'm just worried, that at the worst of times this is all just a game for you and your ego…" said Sally in a worried manner, their eyes still locking in an attempt for dominance.

Needless to say the hedgehog wasn't impressed, this was NOT a game to him, he wanted to make Robotnik pay yes, for all that he had done to him and the planet, he wasn't going to just lay down and welcome all this evil with open arms. Yes, he had messed around at times and could be lazy, but then he was only a living mobian, one with wants and feelings…

"Sally, you still have me all wrong. This isn't a game to me; I want to take down Robotnik just as much as all of us do and yes I overslept, but that isn't important right now. And still, it's not like we've had much to do in awhile, what with all the quietness going on the Robotnik front. But anyway, the important thing is focusing on taking down Robotnik and restoring the peace," he said with the strongest and serious manner he could muster. "I didn't think you'd stoop to such childish arguments Sal," with a childish smirk in Sally's direction.

Silence was all that surrounded the scene for a few seconds.

"Hmm, yes you are right Sonic and I apologize. Just try to be more organised with your sleeping habitats PLEASE?" she sighed in defeat.

"Man, of all the times that you have to grow a brain its whenever in an argument…" she muttered to herself, a pouted smirked smile on her face.

"Heheh, I knew you'd see it my way babe," The sly hedgehog smirked back.

"Sonic, for the last time I am NOT YOUR BABE! Now let's drop this, were already ten minutes overscheduled because of you and your long-winded snooze cruises," Sally said in her strong and aggravated tone, yet again.

"Okay okay, you're the boss. So what's the big scoop, Sally-girl?" he fired back at her, his arms laid back behind his head and his legs crossed on the table edge.

"Okay guys, NICOLE and I have found some strange and odd goings on and they reveal somewhat what Robotnik has been doing in these suspiciously quiet times," she said firmly to the assembled group in front of her.

"Bring up the found document on the main screen would you, NICOLE?"

"_Yes, Sally,_" the supercomputer hummed, transmitting all her findings onto the big computer screen situated above her and in full view of the Freedom Fighters.

The main 20" by 30" screen buzzed into life and black and white dots before a clear and colourful map came through on it; this was a simple map of Planet Mobius and it was labelled. A large red dot circled a region to the west of them and Robotropolis...

"This area my friends, has been reported to have some pretty low-key Robotnik activity in the last few days, with Swatbots and the like supposedly having been spotted in the vacancy. In fact, the only piece of information we have that confirms all this is in a text document that Nicole traced from a Robotnik vessel just mere hours ago," she continued.

"Nicole, if you'd please," she asked, turning to the light-radiating super computer.

No reply came this time, just the opened up file; entitled "Project: PERFECT " beamed up on screen, atop the Mobius map.

"Whoa…" they all gasped, except of course for Sally.

"Robotnik is calling for an excavation, what does this all mean Aunt Sally?" said Tails in his always seemly innocent tone.

"I don't know Tails, and this is what scares me the most. All I can think of is that this PERFECT CHAOS thing comes into it; it must be some weapon of some sort. Something buried if an excavation is in order…" Sally said with a grave face in the youngster's direction, and going off into almost a whisper as she vocalised her thoughts out loud.

"So, where is this excavation happening mi princesse?" Antoine spoke up, a bundle of nerves again.

"That, Antoine is what bewilders me the most… the marked location is none other than Station Square, the main city of the remaining human population of Mobius."

"Oh mah stars! …That is where those that started the…" Bunnie began to say with fear written over her face.

"The Great War; yes, Bunnie, that is where the humans hailed from originally and also probably where Robotnik came from too," Sally continued, her eyes flittering with unease.

"So Robotnik is plotting something again, but with his human buddies right?" Sonic muttered.

"Yes… although I doubt that anyone except him is involved," Sally spoke in a shaky voice. "I mean why now? He cut off his all ties to them way back then, didn't he?"

"I guess so Sal. But what do we do now?" Sonic spoke back with some impatience.

"The only way is for all of us to go there ourselves and find out what this 'Chaos' excavation thing is all about," Sally motioned, speaking as a president addressed their people.

"But what about transportation, Sally-girl? That long a walk would do mah here legs in," Bunnie prompted, still mildly anxious about the whole 'humanville' venture.

"Don't you worry about that guys… Is it ready and rearing to go yet, Tails?" the princess assured with a smile on her face, turning to face the now standing Kitsune.

"You got it Aunt Sally; I modified some parts and got it finished a few hours ago," he said proudly.

"Good boy darling. But Tails, you really should've been sleeping." Sally said in her scathingly motherly tone. A role that she'd instantly taken upon his arrival three years ago, loving him as though he was true family, and even Sonic sometimes as a whacky brother with half a brain.

Nah, she liked him really, but their personalities really did clash at times, and everyone knew it was probably because they liked each other. Not that she or he would ever admit that, and even if it were so, there were… other complications that would come along with it too.

"So you're telling me that you actually stayed up all night on this thing lil bro? Man, I'd hate to lose out on some good old shuteye," Sonic said with surprise.

"Well I'm not you Sonic," the fox child teased back to his big bro, his tongue sticking out.

"Ha-ha, true Tails. True…" he replied with another teasing but playful pose. "So, what big monstrosity have you created this time?"

"Well Sonic… I know I should have maybe told you this, but I've redesigned our Tornado Biplane…" Tails said, keeping his eyes downcast from Sonic's view.

"Wow, really?? Man oh man, that's coolio lil bro!" he exclaimed with excitement. "I can't wait to see how much better you've made it," the cobalt hedgehog praised, cocking a gleeful smile, wink and thumbs up sign at his best friend.

"Wow, thanks Sonic," He said sincerely, his face drooping slightly downwards to hide the embarrassing blush that'd suddenly appeared. "It's all fixed up and raring to go in my lab garage," he hastily spoke, before bolting of the door.

* * *

**Knothole Village / 10.11 AM**

The gang followed him outside and to his house (with his own built mini lab) and waited for him to operate the new Tornado Biplane and lead it outside.

Sonic being the impatient hog that he is was tapping his foot on the ground as he had his arms folded, but still, he was real excited to see what the Tornado had become. It'd been a big help to them whilst battling Robotnik's forces to the west and saved their butts a few times over, and now they were about to fly its successor on a new Robuttnik kicking mission. It was quite exciting!

The sound of engine roaring and a propeller spinning echoed throughout Knothole just minutes later and then the garage doors of Tails 'little' abode stuttered open slowly.

By now spectators in the form of the village's citizens had come to see what all the fuss was about, as they and the Freedom Fighters now bared witness to the evolution of the Tornado.

The Tornado was a biplane so if you can think of that, then you have a pretty good idea of the overall structure of one; and it was a plane that had originally belonged surprisingly to Sonic himself, before the duo met and proceeded to fight in the war against Robotnik's reign. The original design had a thick red coat of paint and yellow stripes going vertically to the horizon midway on the six set of wings. The cockpit was mostly black with a blue clear glass dome to cover the front; the propeller had been grey with a flicker of yellow paint at the end.

The new design before the blue wonder and co now, however, blew them away…

The newly dubbed Tornado 2 had a fresh coat of paint, a strong azure coloured one and bore the crown of acorns symbol (to represent the Acorn Kingdom) on one side, as well as two-tailed sign to symbolise Tails himself as well as Sonic solidified in spin-dash pose. This upgraded edition of the Tornado was capable of folding its wings into an X shape, and had the addition of a jet engine to reach extreme speeds, not to matter its missile fire-power capabilities had also been increased.

At the cockpits helm was none other than the two tailed genius with his piloting glasses on; and the cockpit had also increased its passenger size to a healthy six instead of the usual two it only had before.

"So whatcha think guys? Isn't she a beauty?" Tails had to practically scream over the noise of the new engine. Gasps of awe and amazement from the citizen crowd seemed to answer that question for him.

"It's an amazing improvement lil bro, I never doubted that you wouldn't surprise us all with something this good!" said Sonic, a great big beaming smile plastered across his face.

"I'm glad Sonic. It is still your plane after all," The fox said politely, the noise now droned down to a good level for talking.

"You're wrong there Tails. It's OUR plane, always man," Sonic said with a chuckle and a quick thumbs up, honest truth behind his words.

"Excellent job Tails!" Sally's smile and proudness behind her eyes showed the world all what she thought. "I've got the co-ordinates for the city of Station Square, so are we all ready to go?" she said firmly to everyone.

"Definitely Sally-girl, I'm up for alil good old exploring!" Bunnie boomed.

"Adventuring and Robuttnik kicking is what I do best, so hell yea," Sonic said with a boastful confident tone evident throughout, lightly smacking his fist with one hand.

"But mah princesse, what about tze humans? We are not exactly on the best of terms after tze Great War, are we not? We could be killed on tze spot like common dogs!" Antoine said hastily in an increasingly whimpering voice, but still one of some seriousness content regardless.

Whilst Antoine was known for his overly paranoia at the best and worst of times, they couldn't deny that he had a great point there.

Just how _would_ they be treated once they got there? And even if the other Overlander humans weren't in league with Robotnik, it was hard to put a gamble on the chance that relations between their two species may have dwindled since the Great War.

As the Freedom Fighters finished packing their rucksacks for items for the journey and belted themselves up in their new Biplane transport, the previous thoughts and more haunted their minds, for they all had lost something dear because of them and that war…

The warm rays of the new risen sun and colourful tweets of the morning birds confirmed to all that a new day had indeed dawned once again, and that the day was only just beginning for the Freedom Fighters and their other allies…

* * *

Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream

* * *

And thus ends the third chapter of this story arc!

**The Freedom Fighters are on their way to deal with, unbeknown to them, the issue of Chaos. Next chapter we will deviate to a sub plot in the form of Gamma and Big the Cat, which will be more interesting than it sounds! Lots of burning stuff is involved :-p**

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Pardon my vague knowledge of French and its usage, in regards to the speaking of both Bunnie's own southern accent and Antoine's wobbly French. I never did any French back at school so these two characters and how they speak will be another challenge to overcome during this saga!

Again I'll probably update by months end depending on things in life etc.


	4. Duty Calls

**Chaos is in Robotnik's hands and now the Freedom Fighters are on their way to a confrontation with the tyrant. But the rest of the key players have yet to be called into action, and so begins Gamma's centric, guest starring Big the Cat! **

**Disclaimer**: _I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "**Change The World**" by ARTIST Dream

* * *

**CHAPTER 4: Duty Calls**

**Unknown Location **

"_System Booting…_"

The whiz and buzz of electricity, the erratic and sometimes unpredictable explosion of new robotic life crafted from his very hands; robots that would serve as his foot soldiers in his new world order, this is what the man known as Dr Robotnik loved and lived for.

"_Systems Online at 44%..._" the robotic shell hummed to itself.

"Yes… Yes! Now the world shall witness the excellent craftsmanship of I; Dr Robotnik, of the new stronghold soldier elite…" the mad scientist himself cackled with glee, alone in his secret laboratory.

"_Systems online at 75% efficiency…_"

"It is time… Awaken E-102 Gamma, your other E-Series superiors await your arrival!" boomed Robotnik at the now pulsating with electrical light and activeness robot.

"_Systems online 100%... I am E-102 Gamma, I await your orders master Robotnik,_" said the newborn robot in his monotone drone like voice.

The robot 'Gamma' was a small compact machine and was just slightly below Robotnik's own height. Red coloured much of his body parts, with his chest-plate having a thick vertical white stripe and being fitted also with a black boom box like receiver in order to feed sound waves in and out of his metallic shell. He had 2 small extruded spherical green eyes, which could display the surrounding viewing environment in a manner of different frequencies for different situations, and these were protected and encased within a small dome like cover that also served as the remainder of his head.

Two black shoulder pads the size that you'd expect almost from any Rugby player in the known were connected to his thin red painted arms, silver metal stumps and finally the red cylinders with yellow casings that made up his forearms. A black squared hand and three humanoid like fingers served to complete his arms. A valuable asset that he always carried was his large charge cannon arm, being easy for him to equip and muster with ease and capable of dealing serious rapid fire damage. It was also customisable with different charges for different missionary needs and goals.

Robotnik took two steps backwards with his arms casually intertwined behind his back and inspected the machine, still in its infancy, for any obvious faults. He could see nothing to be wrong and smiled his maddening smile. Yes… Robotnik was very pleased with his new creation, the third of its generation to date to be precise, but he still needed to be tested to prove his worth to his master… and the cold hearted tyrant knew exactly how best to achieve this end.

Gamma's red sensory eyes blinked and followed his master's movements; he was pacing up and down in front of him with small purposeful steps. What did this all mean, did it mean anything? It didn't seem to be anything he could analyse at least so he waited until he was spoken to again. Robotnik's word was absolute and he daren't question it.

Moments later, he stopped pacing and sneered with an evil grin at the turn of his head in the red clad robot's direction before speaking once again.

"Gamma, your first mission will be to prove your worth to me and gain a spot on this, my brilliant Egg Carrier as one of its crew. Your fighting prowess will be tested so fight with all that you have or else you will be melted down and used as scrap, do you understand?" the 'good' doctor said, taking a high rigid army general-like stance whilst addressing him.

"_I understand master, but how will Gamma achieve this spot? Whom must I eliminate to gain your high and above all else favour? Tell me, and it shall be done,_" The robot replied back in his casual monotone-like voice, with a dash of confidence embedded within it this time, Robotnik noticed.

_Ah… a bit of spunk I notice. If he can pull it off, then he will certainly be of great use_, Robotnik thought with glee, that maddening smile creeping its way back onto his hardened face.

"Glad to see that we are on the level Gamma, your opponent shall be none other than your 'brother in arms' Beta. Defeat him and you will gain a spot on my ship. Question my orders or losing to Beta will ensure your end, so do not fail me," he boomed, venom dripping in his very voice, whilst he walked on outside to the deck of the Egg Carrier airship.

Gamma followed swiftly, his feet doubling their use as a temporary hovering unit, with a spare being embedded into his back if he ever need it. The dull metallic eclipsed shaped door opened at his proximity and then he stepped into the blazing sun, and the shining light overshadowed all his senses especially that of sight, for afew seconds thereafter. This left a vague strand of negative thought that Gamma again couldn't analyse and deduce, in his frontal thoughts and then it was gone as soon as the light was, allowing him to then see that he was on a large and spacious airship deck.

The main colours that made up the Egg Carrier were red, yellow and black, and it had two different forms; offensive and defensive, while being somewhat streamlined in its offensive shape, the defensive shape folded the wings out to the sides and made it much harder to get from the landing area to the bridge.

The decking area that Robotnik and Gamma were on now was located at the middle section of the airship and was constructed out of fine wood panels decorated with metal edges for extra support. The main command centre was above them on the upper deck with the wings being on the same level as them, but far to the side of them. The gathered area was small but sufficient space for a swift struggle match, Robotnik had figured.

* * *

"Oh Beta… Come and meet your newborn brother, he's just _dying_ to meet you," the bloated scientist bellowed seemingly to the lone winds, the devilish grin of his contrasting with his innocent-like waving of his arms, as though it 'wasn't a big deal'.

Within seconds a looming shadow over the pair confirmed the arrival of the awaited third party, which was the 'big brother' to Gamma and the first E-100 Series model, E-101 Beta. Gamma skittered afew steps back and eyed up his opponent and predecessor with much interest, his overall structure was almost completely alike his own except with a black and white coat of paint. And instead of one mounted arm weapon, he had two blaster moulded into what would act as his arm limbs and had dull silvery metal casting remaining around his waist area.

Gamma started to assume a fighting stance with his arms ahead of him, to act as an offensive shield, the older and original counterpart however, had no such honour in mind and went straight for the kill…

Beta swooped on down using his inferior, but usable jet boosters and slammed an uppercut with his mounted gun arm right under Gamma's head. This fortunately only served to face the healthy young soldier and the sneak attacker was met with a sizzling barrage of gun blasts, many causing slight damage to the surrounding area, much to Robotnik's silent curses.

An odd spike of random numbers erupted hastily within his computed brain, momentarily distracting him, and had it not been for his quick reactions, then propelling himself airborne with his thrusters wouldn't have been done in time to avoid a rebounded array of gun blast from his aggressor.

The cold hearted soldiers tossed and twirled in the air and backhanded each other blows with significant ease, the excitement and tension was enough to make someone's skin 'exhale' and it certainly was doing that Robotnik's way, the man was a bundle of mixed feelings at the sight and only wished that the victor would hurry up and crush the trashy loser bot's head already…

Up in the air, the two were in a mighty headlock grappling scenario with neither determined to break the struggle and give any opportunity to the other. "I will not lose to such an inferior being, no matter what my master says of your 'improved' state." boomed Beta, the first words he had spoken to his counterpart, and they were filled with malice. It pained Gamma alil to say the least that he could be so, as humans called it, 'arrogant' but this match also fired up their desires to serve under their great master, and Gamma would not lose.

Mustering all his strength he managed to struggle out of Beta's clutches and backhanded him with a swift left kick to the side of the head, this sent the black and white tin can reject into the side tower of the Egg Carrier, leaving a sizable hole and Beta buried under afew tons of rubble.

In the passing seconds thereafter Gamma decides to scan the area for any signs of life before gaining his well worth prize from master Robotnik down below. Thousands of millions of calculations written in an advanced binary code flashed down Gamma's eye sensors, being used to detect for any heat or sound sources from the downed foe.

A slight bleep on his scanner and all hell then broke loose.

An explosive aerial force pulsated out of the rumble, creating small gusts of wind around the area and then doing its obvious 'Hulk SMASH!' impression, Beta clambered itself from the wreckage and darted swiftly in Gamma's direction.

"_Uh oh…"_ Gamma bleeped out loud.

A shattering smash was the next thing to register and then random static for afew seconds. When all came back online, he panicked slightly and struggled as he realised he was being held by one arm at his chest area and brought above Beta's own height, whilst a radiating blast was being charged and aimed at his head with the free blaster arm.

Needless to say, he was not in the least happy or comfortable.

Moments pasted, and then Gamma used an emergency manoeuvre, igniting one half of his jet booster and a typhoon of mammoth proportions let rip into the surrounding area, literally melting away some of the outer layer's of Beta's being.

He took a quick glance back at the now smoking and shuddering Beta and then brought both his arms together, charged up his gun arm and then shot a powerful pulse blast dead on the chest plate of his falling foe. The blinking white eye lights from Beta were now fading away rapidly, his spark of life fading away as quickly as he was now plummeting to the deck of the ship.

* * *

Robotnik wobbled across to inspect the fallen creation of his, and was very pleased of Gamma's abilities, he was sure Beta had won just moments ago when he was about to wipe Gamma's head clean off his body but he didn't. That evasive move was especially very reckless but then his soldiers needed to be, ruthless and the kind that would fight to the end, no matter what. He watched Gamma descend in front of him and the half life shell of Beta, noticing that aside from some scorch marks on his sides and a now half empty jet booster pack, that his newborn combat warrior was pretty much good as new.

The large tyrant wiped and snorted away the smoke cascading from the decaying body of Beta and cleared his throat with a grumbling cough.

"Ahem, Gamma, I must simply applaud you on a job done to grilled," he chuckled, "-perfection. You're quite a reckless and wild one for show aren't you? " the doctor said with a strong commanding voice, as well as a slight subtle amusement beneath the exterior.

Robotnik turned to the burnt out Beta shell, flicked it with his fingers. "I'm afraid that your pedestal has been snatched and your glory days well and truly over my dear old Beta…" he said with no plain regret in his tone, just sheer evilness and disregard for any whims that the robot could have.

"Take him away to the scrap heap; I'll be there personally to oversee his fate in afew minutes," Robotnik commanded to an assembled small group of worker bots on level with his head.

"… Understood… master." croaked Beta and just strode away following the inferior worker bots to his confirmed deathly fate.

Gamma turned and watched him wander away, a slight burst of random code inside his circuitry picking at some unknown and foreign thought; he choose to ignore it and acknowledged to himself that he was the victor and now a fulltime crew member of the Egg Carrier, and one that would now serve Robotnik, his master, with all that he can do.

"Gamma, you are now a full time member of this crew but don't think that things will be plain sailing from now my robot friend, for I have a mission for you to undertake and only then shall you rise in my expectations and rankings, is that understood E-102 Gamma?" Robotnik stated loud and clear to the stationary robot in front of him.

"_Understood master Robotnik, what do I need to do for you my superior?_" replied Gamma in his monotone robotic voice of his.

_Eager to please I see… well that's very good, he shall be a great addition to my army if he can continue to carry out my missions_, Robotnik thought with smug glee. "Follow me to the briefing room Gamma and I shall explain all, we will be arriving at the mission destination soon," he harped before striding off towards the nearest door leading to the sky deck.

Gamma followed him, gliding as if on air using his 'feet's' temporary gliding mechanism.

As the door slammed shut behind the pair, those outside and around the Egg Carrier airspace would be able to tell you that a glimpse of some land was on the horizon, split through the parting clouds ahead. It was vastly spacious and filled with earthy browns and greens, their next stop was the fabled Mystic Ruins Zone.

* * *

**Mystic Ruins Zone/ 9.45 AM **

It was a fine day in this region, for the luscious green moss was in abundance and caressing the brown, rocky mountains that towered over the enigmatic region. The morning had just started to disperse into daylight and the morning dewed mist circled on above having risen to the height of the mountains, it gave a luminous and serene character to the surrounding country, and helped mask the true depths of its history from prying eyes in exchange for its gorgeous breathtaking scenery.

This was now about to be interrupted by natures very own worse enemy, the very opposite of its entire being and purpose, that of technology and the person who'd abuse it for his own evil malicious ends; the mad scientist known only as Robotnik.

The sudden presence of the mammoth airship of the Egg Carrier seemed to distort the natural order almost instantaneously, with the light being warped and bent; and the region blanketed in shadows as if it'd squeezed the very light out of the land before extinguishing it. The calm and serene atmosphere was gone, and only a cautious and heart thumping mood surrounded the land and those of its inhabitants, except for a big cat and frog a few miles away or so.

Not more than a minute later, a small sized blue tractor beam of light came from the Egg Carrier and engulfed the spacious grounded plains of creamy brown soil below, nearby a darkened azure lake where such vegetation as the common mobian palm tree variety matured.

The figure that came down and materialized in the fading light was none other than our very own Gamma, newly semi-claimed warbot extraordinaire to Robotnik and his cause.

He immediately scanned the surrounding area and found that Robotnik's initial analysis and brief of the Mystic Ruins to be true, despite the lush and vibrant abundance of life that filled the region and gave it its beauty, it was along with its history, an enigma. He reflected immediately back on his mission statement as any kind of intellectual empathy just wasn't what he needed or indeed wanted, he wasn't a being of flesh so pity things such as curiosity and the like meant nothing to him. So wasting no time, he promptly sped off on his hovering foot mode and off to complete his given task.

* * *

**Mystic Ruins Zone/ Jungle Region / 9.56 AM **

A quick five to ten minute mine cart ride through the open mountain catacombs leads the keen explorer into an even more exciting and deeper part of the Mystic Ruins region; where the morning dew made the upper growths of the larger sky-reaching foliage sparkle and glisten under the sun's warmth giving rays. The jungle treetops covered most of the region, and one could barely see the ground even if they were standing onto the canopy itself, it was as Robotic told him, a vast, impenetrable and maze like jungle of ancient mysteries, Gamma recalled to himself.

Our robot friend right now was situated miles above the colossal jungle maze on a cliff top overlooking the secluded region.

To a being of flesh, as Gamma would dictate it, the region was a vast wonderland of serenity and exotic varieties in smells [or so he'd been told, since he couldn't actually smell things himself], sounds and wildlife, but to Gamma or moreso his master Robotnik, it held an ancient mystery; or moreso more about the creature itself aboard the Egg Carrier, its history and its potential abilities. As he reflected upon all this known data in his memory banks, the humidity and wind were beginning to pick up speed and slam into his hide. So before his body could be knocked off, he willingly used his booster pack and hovering abilities to slowly, but surely, descended into the unknown…

Hazy perceptions of black and white darkness were all he could compute for a full minute or two as he continued to glide down through the layers of foliage, and after awhile he could hear a rushing sound, a gurgling sound, a splash? He immediately zeroed it down to the substance of H2O, or rushing water, which would mean a river. And where there were rivers, there was life, newborn, matured or decaying.

He landed on solid ground, which his visionary sensors confirmed, as he raised up and stood on the dirt path next to the aforementioned river. The floor itself was sparsely wet with the dewdrops of the jungle treetops, which seeped down the tree trucks like a slithering snake. Small dripping spats broke out every now and then, collecting into a wide and gushing riverbank and into the main body of the sprinting water flow as well. Compared to the light lime greens and chocolate brown earth of the previous section of the Mystic Ruins, there was more dark and vivid emerald greens at play here and darkened brown soil, partly due to some recent rainfall.

But, having had enough of gawking at the organic, living and thus unimportant surroundings, Gamma probed his memory banks to load up the missionary dialogue; so as to run it past him one more time in case that freefall move had scrambled his memory banks in any possible way [as unlikely as that was].

"_Memory banks… intact." Pause. "Missionary dialogue intact, launching audio sequence,_" Gamma hummed to himself, speaking through his internal CPU systems.

"Gamma, your mission is this. I want you to locate an ancient temple which has been told of in the lore of the Mystic Ruins region, there is something there, a transcript or some sort of mechanism that I have great needs of, in regards to my Chaos creature. I'm sure from this photo that you can see his potential. However, the jungle undergrowth there is so vast and colossal that people have simply gotten lost and never returned, as well as this the ancient temple has never been officially verified as existing, but I KNOW that it's out there. I want you to do everything that you can, and to help with the task as well, to simply clear the space. I'm trusting you with these…" the voice of Robotnik droned on, military style.

The time was now and Gamma reached for the aforementioned device, the twin pair that would help him locate the temple of ancients in this jungle of mazes, the weapons were of course a pair of small but effective flamethrower's, silver in mould and striped with yellow and black colours, these babies which would almost surely lick the forest clean of all its wildlife and reveal the missionary objective; the temple.

He holstered the flamethrower pair into each hand and began to ascend upwards, setting his jet pack to the 'hover' setting. The first sparks came out small and unevenly, but in mere seconds whole tendrils of hot blazing fire were coming out and the surrounding foliage was starting to burn and smoke.

The flames spiralled upwards and the smoke rose above the canopy forming seemly into a monster of smoky proportions; in the meanwhile Gamma continued to swoop across the canopy and start a blaze anew, the flames continuing to lick and burn away at organic life as if it was some kind of parasite. The flashing roars of flame made his metal shell appear more shiny and menacing than he already was, and also very warm to the touch. It was no problem for him, yet, though, so he carried on in the blistering heat, for this was what his master wanted, and his master was never wrong.

The wildlife having sensed the danger from the moment it started had begun to flee, those that were grounded following the river and the birds of flight took off into skies beyond the mountains of their home.

* * *

**Mystic Ruins Zone/ Above The Jungle / 10.17 AM **

However, one such resident had only just realised what was going on and unlike the others, he simply couldn't stand to see such things happen to his home, and thus whilst Gamma continued his ill fated spiral of flames he had no idea of what was to come…

A running figure was dashing through the undergrowth, dashes of purple and white, he was following the cleared upper growth and the newly opened skylight. "Oh no. Oh no. Why is this happening? This just isn't good at all, how can someone be so mean. I must hurry and make them stop. This just isn't good at all!" The plump figure spoke out, to no one in particular in rapid groans, ignoring his aching side. The rising heat was simply adding to his exhaustion and tiring his body out.

"Aww I wish Froggy were here… I don't wanna do this by myself." _What if I mess up…? Then what would we do, this is our home, the one and only._ The cat creature agonised to himself, he just simply wasn't the hero sort, and he didn't want to be. In this case, however he had no choice in the matter as much as he hated to admit it.

He continued to run, all time seemly frozen in the face of the ascending flames, with his aching side and his feet draped with hardening mud as he splashed to and fro through the muddy jungle grounds. Tilting his head towards the now ruby coloured sky, mixed with leftover azure of the sky, he could make out the troublemaking figure; he was mostly a round shape and had thin sprouted rectangular arms and legs from the main body. _He definitely didn't look like any animal he'd ever seen before…_ the cat pondered briefly.

Just metres away from the current inferno zone he could feel the pricks of the heat increase in sheer magnitude of pain, all he wanted were for this all to stop, to return home and chill with Froggy amidst the cool and calming spring waters. That wouldn't happen unless he could stop this person from doing all the bad things he was doing. _Maybe he doesn't know what is he doing?_ The cat thought simply, and with that strand of thought at its conclusion he was now right below Gamma, or as he could now see him clearly, regarded him as the shiny metallic being in the air…

* * *

**Mystic Ruins Zone/ Deep Jungle / 10.36 AM **

"STOP! Please stop what you are doing mr metal man, it is wrong, so very wrong!" the plump feline screamed as hard as he could, the roaring flames distorting the air all around them as though some impenetrable cocoon of flame had been made, one that sealed all sound and life from the outside world.

Luck as you have it must have been on Big's side that day, for Gamma promptly heard his plea and stopped what he was doing, extinguishing his flamethrower blasters and tilting his head round to find the source of that voice. "_Life form detected in the vicinity, tracking the vocal velocity source…_" Gamma droned in his monotone robot voice as he continued to look for the aforementioned lifeform with a spin and whirl of his head.

Seconds later and his eyes crossed with Big's, his eye sensors gleaming with light as they scanned the unexpected intrusion. _He stopped! That is good… but why is he looking at me like that, what should I say? Maybe I can make him good!_ And whilst Big was shaking in quake of the inevitable confrontation with the 'metal' stranger, Gamma himself had finished scanning Big's lifeform patterns.

"_Lifeform analysis complete… Species is of the Wild Mobian variety… Very uncommon and rarely seen, even within the Mystic Ruins. No additional information available,_" said Gamma's internal database system, repeating its pre-programmed information on the wild cat species. And from it, Gamma knew one thing was for certain, there was no threat from it.

Gamma descended and landed with barely a sound and turned to face Big, who by now was quivering with slight fear but one could see he was trying very hard to fight it [because it was a pretty foreign feeling to him], and all the while the flames danced around the landscape, moulding it into a stiff blackened version of its former self and spreading ever further.

Big gulped a large intake of breath and was about to utter something but Gamma beat him to it. "_State your name and your business with me, cat lifeform,_" Gamma droned in a firm and serious tone, curiously at the cat's apparent disregard for his mission and his own life picking away at his internals.

"I… am Big. I came here to get you to stop what you were doing, it was so very wrong. Why'd you do it?" stuttered the feline, feeling very inferior to Gamma at this instance.

"_I did it because my master, Robotnik, told me so. It is of no concern to you, being of flesh,_" said Gamma with a splice of something akin to arrogance in his voice.

"Robotnik…? I have never heard of anyone like that. Why would you or them want to destroy and hurt all the life here, its all our home, why do destroy it?" spoke Big somewhat glumly but greatly saddened, being from this neck of the world made him somewhat naive since he had never had the unfortunate opportunity of being prone to Robotnik and his actions… well, before now that is.

The screech of many an avian bird suddenly cut through the quiet, tense exchange of words, prompting Gamma's reply to be never realised as the two sluggishly turned round against the wildfires around them. A piercing screech was coming from atop one of the nearby trees, Big spotted the chick right away, it was of the blue feathered kind and it was clutching the tree branch it was so stiffly rooted to with his bird claws. The blue bird's eyes were a bright shining green [moreso because of the flames everywhere] and wide open; it was scared stiff and trapped, as the flames were quickly eradicating the tree from below and soon straight into the bird's path!

"_Lifeform scanning…_" Bleep. "_What should I do… this does not compute…_" the robot drone that was Gamma stated out loud, his eyes dimming to that of the dark, this situation definitely was not programmed into him so he didn't know of what solution he should have… It was foreign, an anomaly.

"Hey! Mr, please we need to save the lil bird, it needs our help!" shouted Big, snapping Gamma out of his unnerved stance, his eyes glowing with activity once again.

"_The bird needs our… help? Why?_" Gamma replied simply.

"Because he's in danger! Do you always need to have a reason or question why? Don't you have things that you would like or want to do?" Big stated clearly with a certain edge of pride, as though it had been recited from a warm and fond memory.

"_So… I… we should save the bird because he's in danger? I'm not meant to reason; I only follow the commands of my master, which is all I ever have to know,_" Gamma stated.

The screech reached new peeks and the arguing duo turned and saw that the flames were moments away from frying the poor soul to death; it was then that Big did something that he never done for a very long time, he raised his voice and shouted out in anger, his last resort to get through to this cold stranger.

"We have to SAVE the bird NOW, and I want you to do it! You started this fiery mess and you can stop it, can you not fire water from your arms as well…?" shouted the feline in anger, the very tone consorting his facial features into a scowl directly at Gamma.

* * *

Seconds later and the robot responded. "…_I will deal with this now,_" Gamma droned ever-monotone he thrusted his blaster arms into the nearby river, sucking up the warmed water to carry out this task.

Big watched him holster his blaster arms and send a torrent of water, although warmed, at the white hot flames and then promptly hiss into steam and vapour, all gone. Whilst he wasn't a hero and couldn't say that saving the day had been down to him, he did manage a smile as he felt a warm feeling buzz his insides. He'd done the right thing in coming here and 'metal man' had as well, he was proud in a way, despite all that he'd done, for he had set it right.

Gamma then, even by having saved the bird, the object of his new 'mission'; had felt inclined to put a stop to the rest of the spreading flames and had done so within the space of minutes with his 'weapons' of gushing water. He didn't know why, he just did it – he didn't feel anything from it. And why would he? He was just a robot, and robots weren't alive…

"_My work here is done… All fires have been extinguished,_" a tweeting sound interrupted his self reassuring speech, looking up he saw that it was the blue avian bird he had saved before by holding him in his cradled arms as they had descended from the flame licked tree together. Another burst of random anomalies ran through his computerised brain, and although it took a little bit longer this time round, he ignored them again.

The blue bird circled the robot and then giving one last tweet and adoring 'thank you for saving me' look, then took off into the sky, and then as quickly as he'd reappeared he had gone again.

Silence filled the crispy smoky air, through the glade that had been a roar of ferociously only minutes ago, with the two figures left alone again in the world. It was as if no one else would know anything of what had transpired here, of the efforts of both it had taken to control it. It was really quite sad, or it should've been but then this was about a naive cat and a robot…

"Mr… are you okay?" Big asked slowly, walking arm outwards towards the oddly silent robot.

"_I_ _am fine. I'm just 'stumped' now; I have failed my mission and my master. And these anomalies are nothing but an unnecessary annoyance,_" Gamma replied, slowly but surely, his voice slightly more uneven than usual.

"Your mission…? So it wasn't to burn down this jungle home of ours?" said Big, his hand scratching his head in confusion.

"_No… That was only a given necessity to find my missionary objective. I'm here on Robotnik's orders to find the long lost temple of this region…_" droned Gamma in his militant monotone voice, of which was slightly starting to bewilder Big even more.

"Oh… So you want to find the lost long temple? Why didn't you just ask you silly billy!" cried the purple and white feline in amusement, a big silly grin on his face.

"_Silly billy…?_" Gamma queried in incomputable confusion.

"Don't know why you would want to go though… It's just one BIG maze of nothing. I went once or twice when I was younger and I just got lost, Grandpa was so mad…" Big uttered silently to himself.

"_Wait, you know where the temple is? Do you care to show me, lifeform?_" Gamma uttered, snapping Big out of his remembrance session and answering with a swift goofy nod.

"Of course, you're my new found friend! Just follow me, Mr," he said, his form jumping up and down with mild excitement coupled with a wide grin as he strutted off into the vast jungle.

"_Friend…? Okay then. My name… is Gamma by the way,_" stuttered the surprised robot.

"Gamma? What an unusual name! Oh well, you're my friend now and that's all that counts," Big replied kindly looking back as he traversed through the jungle undergrowth that hadn't been set aflame earlier, always thinking on his naive yet honest one-track mind set.

* * *

**Mystic Ruins Zone/ Deep Jungle / Ancient Temple Outskirts / 11.41 AM **

After miles of following the big naïve cat through the arid wild jungle, Gamma had begun to internally wonder if he knew where he was going at all… Beings of flesh were noted for their flaws after all, his memory banks dictated, other than his master, Robotnik, of course.

The way forward he noted was still dark, ever since they had begun their travels they had lost sight of the sky and in turn the almost high noon sun, this gave the surrounding area even more vividness in terms of the emerald greens of the tree leaves, the ripen red succulent berries that hung from some of them as well as the soft brown furs of the hanging coconut shells on the others. It was gloomy… but in a nice way, the ground wasn't soft or wet at the very worse! The normal bird sounds and the scuffle of other animals had returned as well the deeper him and Big traversed into the unknown.

Gamma despite being a robot was nearing the end of his patience toll and was just about to protest his thoughts out loud when… "We're here, my new friend! We're here at the temple!" Big suddenly shouted out, the excitement still ringing true through his voice; despite the long and virtually quiet journey that he had just carried out with his said new 'friend'.

The light of what Gamma immediately deduced as golden sunlight was seeping high and mighty through the nearby trees now and illuminated outwards as he stepped out into the clearing… Having awaited for a final resolution to this endless trek he had just taken to fulfil his primary mission, he was annoyed and then just plain puzzled when he found that he still couldn't see the skylight at all out here; it wasn't a clearing as much as a dome which had lengthy but thin gaps sliced into it in order to let sunlight in; and all that was necessary at that. Basically it looked like some kind of kaleidoscope turned dome shape made out of treetops.

"See, we're here… Gamma? What's wrong?" asked the feline quietly, and in a somewhat lazy tone.

"… _When I saw sunlight I expected to see the sky again, especially after that very long walk you just made us do. What's with the tree canopy dome up there?_" Gamma quizzed the cat, pointing up at the said tree canopy with his left hand's middle finger.

"Oh that?" he said in mild amusement. "To me it has always appeared to be a natural defence of some kind but who knows… all I know is that it's been there in this rainforest for a very long time…" he mumbled quietly.

"_So it's protecting the temple from outsiders then?_" Gamma retorted back.

"Yea… I guess so!" Big replied back, naively missing Gamma's real meaning. He then turned round, his fishing rod laced over his shoulder and continued walking north towards the temple; and Gamma then swiftly followed.

He allowed himself to immerse in the wake of the temple straight ahead for the first time since stepping out into this semi lit part of the jungle world, and it was huge! It was structured very much like you'd expect, layers of larger slightly slanted rectangular blocks stacked upon one another, reaching forth higher into the heavens and getting less wider with every increasing layer. The temple was clearly of very ancient methodology and origin; it simply oozed history and the amount of emerald green moss covering it certainly added to that natural assumption. The towering temple itself was a musty golden brown colour and had only a single small doorway at the centre of its base for one to enter through.

"So yea… this is the place buddy. Do you need any help inside…?" Big said in his friendly glum way, his eyes filled with calamity and warmth, and his arms and hands casually tied behind his back.

"… _I will be fine… 'Mr' Big. I must complete my missionary objective now,_" hummed the robot droid unevenly.

"Oh okie… Good luck my new friend! I'll see you around sometime yeah?" Big shouted with friendly joy as he waved goodbye to Gamma, of who was swiftly becoming one with the darkness and shadows as he entered deeper into the temples entrance. Only one thing was on his mind, completing his task and returning to his master.

_Good luck my friend… Though you don't talk much and started out bad, I know that you are good inside. I'm glad to have met you this day. Let us meet again, _thought Big to himself at he stood still waving at the shadow filled temple entrance from afar, his cheeky, glum yet sincere smile plastered on his lovable self.

Hours later, Gamma would uncover the information that Robotnik had craved, taking photographic evidence for his analysis and missionary items. The day had been a long and confusing one; he was now as much as he'd hatred to admit it confused. He had followed orders, not once but a couple of times from someone not of his master, and then there were those spikes of anomalies. Hopefully, they wouldn't become any more frequent… or else it could mean he was faulty, and he didn't want to be, nor displease his aster.

And whilst his new robot was struggling with his identity and sense of self, Robotnik now had in his hand the proof he needed to unleash Chaos and his ultimate potential. He licked his lips, he could smell his victory over the meddlesome freedom fighters already…

He was going to enjoy this, the pain and destruction, with all of his cold evil heart.

* * *

And thus I reach the end of another chapter, I hope that I did Gamma partly proud, writing as a robot is kinda hard but having him have sparks of emotion and rejecting them as well as disregarding them in a robotic way was even harder!

I hope I did Big the Cat proud too, I love the dude, he's so lovable and down to earth and I hope that I portrayed his sense of heroism okie... He always striked me as the character to avoid heroic situations, and not because he was specifically lazy but because it wasn't in his nature, rather it's to do with his laid back and naïve view on life. So to write him in as 'saving the day' here was challenging, I hoped his sincere lack of modesty over doing that feat also came across, he really didn't believe that he did very much.

I think even with any kind of 'superpower' that he wouldn't wanna be thrust into the hero limelight, it'd all be too much for him and disrupt his lifestyle which he wouldn't like in my opinion.

He genuinely saw something good and of value in Gamma and helped bring it out, that's the kind of person he is, he sees the good in all and yes whilst he's glum and naïve, he's not stupid, he just has a very big heart and wants to see good in all, as we all want to/-should.

He will be appearing later on so maybe I can develop what I'm trying to convey better there.

* * *

**The next chapter is back to the Freedom Fighters as they arrive in Station Square!**

Again I'll probably update by months end depending on things in life etc.

Take ya'll. ^-^


	5. Normal As It Gets

**Chaos is in Robotnik's hands and now the Freedom Fighters are on their way to a confrontation with the tyrant in the Overlander filled city of Station Square… What past and present demons await them?**

**Disclaimer**: _I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "**Change The World**" by ARTIST Dream

* * *

**CHAPTER 5: Normal As It Gets**

**EASTERN MOBIAN AIRSPACE / 11.33 AM**

The Freedom Fighters in Tails' new Tornado 2 were on route to Station Square; with the sun shining and clear blue skies shimmering above them you'd think that the mood would be absolutely marvellous wouldn't you? Unfortunately that was far from the truth, pretty much anyone who you'd meet in this world would tell you the same pretty much, relations had quite obviously been strained between the mobians and humans (Overlanders) since the Great War ended. All of the Freedom Fighters had lost something in that war and that was something they'd never forget in a hurry…

In the middle compartment of the three rows of dull black leather seats sat our favourite nervous soldier wannabe, Antoine. He had just been complaining of being air sick, not to mention that this was the FIFTH time he'd mentioned it already, his beautiful, fun and bouncy seat neighbour, Bunnie, thought to herself.

As truth be told the bumpy turbulence and clean air was only making him the very slightest queasy and it wasn't much a problem, it gave him something to do and think about, other than memories of _back then_. Try as he may he slumped back in his seat once again and quietened himself, casting his eyes out to the endless cloudy sky with his right arm and hand supporting his chin, as he cast himself back into memories…

_Oh my, oh my… I cannot simply believe that we have to go to the city of those… humans. I know that it is very bad thinking but what can I help it? Robotnik… just by himself, one of their own, have taken nearly the whole planet for himself, just what could more of them do together? It doesn't bear thinking about…_ mused a very nervous Antoine to himself, along with many others he too had lost all that he could call family in the Great War of years ago.

_Oh poppa… how I've admired you and wanted to be just as strong and confiant as you were… I fight thee tyrant Robotnik, not only for Mobius and to help out mi friends, I also do it for you… _

_I just wanted to make you proud of me, so you'd be able to say one day to anyone that does ask; 'Ah yes, he's my son don't you know?', and that I've done this and that. That I vanquished the dark towering monster and saved ma princesse, like in those silly fairy tales that momma used to tell. I didn't care too much for them back then but I'd cherish any moment that came my way now; if I could just see you both again, and have us be as a famille again…_

As he reflected back on his memories of less complicated times, his eyes continued to drift across the endless sea of clouds as he wrapped his arms around his chest as if to hide something away, if just for a little while. _Of whom do I have to prove myself to myself now…?_ The thought terrified him, as that'd just make him useless and give me credit to that 'fueeel' of a hedgehog. In such a comfy position (bar any wild thoughts running his mind dry) it was no surprising that he fell asleep shortly afterwards, as the Tornado continued its flight across the continent.

_Hmm looks like lil old ant-twan fell asleep… it must've been all that stressing out earlier. Hehe, bless his lil cotton socks_, thought a slightly bemused Bunnie as she looked warmly on over at him from her seat. She saw the wind ruffle about his prized golden curls (which would by no means be sorted and whined about later) she thought, a giggle not quite escaping her lips. _He looks so peaceful now…_she thought looking at his sleeping face;_ it's such a shame that he's never as calm when he is awake. He looks quite… charming… dashing even like this._ Her azure eyes widened in disbelief, with one of those slight gulps that just wouldn't pass away caught in her throat. _Did I just think that…?_

'_Is it so abnormal to feel something towards another, towards a comrade in arms no less?' g_loated some part of Bunnie's sub-conscious. _No of course… not …why am I speaking to myself? Of course it isn't wrong but with Antoine…? We're just friends! We can't… be anymore than that. Can we…? _

Her subconscious didn't reply.

_Stupid subconscious…_ she mused with an inaudible groan, _what do you care anyway?_

Opening her eyes and looking over at him confirmed to her that he was still quietly resting; _and thank the good old heavens for that!_ _And well its not like I don't think that he's dashing… he is_, she thought a slight blush on her face, and making very sure to hide it from the rest of her fellow riders.

_I just don't think the time is ready yet, I don't want to damage the friendship we've spent building up now. Just during this long god awful war. He's always been so lovely and kind to me, despite his clumsy and nervous whims, although he just wouldn't be the same without those quirks I think! The way he banters over Sally girl with sugah hog Sonic and postures himself when he's talking about all the great things he has done or will do. I love those lil moments, the way we are and as a team is fine just the way it is. No matter what I'll know that'll always have my friends. If we keep on together then who knows, but for now, this all is fine with me_, she thought with a smile that would warm even the coldest heart on her face.

And with that she proceeded to kick back and try to relax, a good old memory coming to heart and mind every now and then. Although she too had her reservations about the human filled metropolis they were heading to, as she'd had two bad experiences with the dubbed Overlander's in her life… _I just hope that, they see me for who I am and not what I look like. I just… hope that this was a good idea, Sally girl…_she started to drum her fingers on the seat then, to calm her nerves somewhat.

This unusual turn was noticed by Sally, whom had been sneakily watching the one nerve racked and one sleeping pair. She truth be told had been racking up the nerves as well, about what she was gonna do in order to lead the team in the best possible manner, about possible negations she may have to with the native humans and just really about if they really should be doing this. _What if it all went too wrong?_

"Hey Bunnie, is everything all right?" the hard thinker of a princess asked, slight worry abundant in her strong yet calm voice.

This immediately got the bunny gal's attention, and cut the constant tapping sound that had been silently droning in everyone's ears (minus Antoine's) for the last few minutes. "Oh! Oh… what Sally…?" she replied in a jumbled haste.

"I asked if you were ok Bunnie. You looked tense… you nervous?" she replied to her best girl mate, taking care with her assorted items on her lap as she moved with slowed movements to the remaining empty seat next to Bunnie and rested her arm around her back for comfort.

Bunnie had tiled her head down now, her dirty golden hair seemingly dancing across her face in the winds, "I'm just a lil scared that's all… Sally. What if were attacked or something, what would we do? I don't wanna end up hurt somebody…" she rushed in a slight whimper, not as much as Antoine's would be but full of sadness and nervousness, _not the kind of Bunnie we see all the time_, thought Sally. _But then we are all scared, we all have great reason to be. I don't blame you at all, darling._

"Oh Bunnie, we're all scared. It's only natural to be, given everything that has happened between them and us but we need to try and rise above it, I'm sure that not all humans are bad or anything like Robotnik. It's bad of us to think that they are, for us to have that racial tendency but its ok to be afraid and scared Bunnie, because I am too." Sally replied, giving Bunnie a great big hug. _Were all scared sometimes, but we need to try to match it and conquer it, like your enemy in battle or else you've lost. Big time_, Sally thought to herself as she remembered such life lessons she'd learnt from her late mentor, Julayla, back in Knothole.

* * *

"Say what do you thinks up with those two, Tail's?" asked the obviously bored looking hedgehog up in front to the pilot none of the less, having seen Sally and Bunnie in the rear mirrors of the control panels.

"Who knows, but whatever it is I'm sure Aunt Sally is fixing it right now." said the twin tailed fox with shining pride.

"Yeah I guess… it looks like we're all a lil shaky about this city cruise." remarked Sonic with less than great enthusiasm; almost as if it had came out as some sort of joke or was just plain sarcasm at its lowly best.

"… So you're not nervous, Sonic?" said an unconvinced Tails to his best 'older bro'.

"Me? No of course not buddy! …I mean what's the worst that can happen?" replied Sonic in a haste, in his 'oh everything's all coolio' like tone. "They can't be any of Eggy's fans because otherwise we'd know, I'm sure that things will be fine lil bro, we'll say hi and after awhile nobody will care to notice us." He concluded, and oddly enough pretty seriously for the hedgehog in particular.

"But we ARE different… from them I mean, at least in looks." Pause "How can you be so confident whilst I'm so scared Sonic…?" Tails said slowly with obvious nerves coursing through his young body and intertwined in his voice, all the while facing forward and keeping his eyes on the horizon to steer his creation onward.

"Buddy… its okie, I'm confident because someone needs to be, either me or Sal at the very least or else we'd fall apart. I can't let fear slow me down or else I'll lose… we'd all lose… You understand lil bro?" explained the hedgehog as best as he could to his younger 'bro' and team mate, with strength and pride in his voice. "Besides, with me being the truest and bluest hedgehog alive and with all of us lot going, except maybe in 'twans case… Who's to argue with the way we all look?" he said with his typical cheek, and with his trademark cocky grin and thumbs up to conclude.

"Yea… I guess so. We'll find out when we get there huh Sonic?" replied Tails, and strikingly visibly cheered up some with the childish innocence in his voice pushing back the sad tones of before. With a renewed smile back on his young face, he allowed himself to laugh at Sonic's joke, and its 'hidden' insult within it for Antoine.

_Thanks Sonic… Man you always know what to say, I so wanna become a big hero like you someday and get to do all the kewl stuff you do! And yes, I'll try and be more confident, if you can be then so can I. I want to protect my friends as well! Now we just have to make it through Station Square, full of Overlander's… Oh my gosh just what are they gonna say or do to us when we get there…?, _ mused our young hero wannabe in his inner mind as he carried on with his pilot duties to enable him and his friends to get to Station Square in the best of time, _and in one piece!_

In the back, the girls were now apart and looking a bit more chilled out, and were chattering away in order to pass the time [as you do]…

* * *

"So… Bunnie... what do you think about Antoine?" asked Sally, a smirk already coming to blossomed fruition on her face.

"Antoine…?" she replied suddenly, maybe a tad too suddenly and the slight blush on her face just confirmed what Sally already thought she knew. "Whatever do ya mean Sally girl? Aha… ha." She said with a nervous chuckle, her hands now trying to cover up again sign of his blushing. _Oh my, why now Bunnie darling. How simply embarrassing!_

"Ah… well I just had this tiny winy feeling that maybe there was something more brewin' between you both?" Sally playfully replied back with a giggle.

"Oh Sally girl! Man oh man… did you just say 'brewin'?! I see someone's been spending too much time around good old sugah hog…" said Bunnie, getting back at Sally as good as she originally gave and with a dramatic smile and finger hand dance to go with it. _Hehe two can play at this game, girl friend!_

"Oh no… Of course not! Me with that stuck up blue arrogant…" exclaimed Sally in protest, descending eventually into a grumble tirade at the 'blue wonder', her voice may have appeared to disguise her real feelings but Bunnie was having none of it, she and everyone knew that she liked him… _she's just the hard to get kinda gal, my Sally_, thought Bunnie in amusement at Sally's rare childish tirade and sulking actions. Besides, Sally had admitted several times in girl privacy that she liked him already, which made the public spectacle even more amusing to witness.

"Hmm… see this is the Bunnie we all know and love, the fun and vibrant one!" Sally stated with happiness, anything to divert attention from the blue hog subject… "And besides, you're questioning m'wah," she continued, putting on a fake posh accent. "What about you and Antoine then, Bunnie?" remarked the lone princess playfully, glancing at the sleeping blonde.

"Heh, you got me there darling," Bunnie flustered, before an interruption presented itself.

"Hey guys you better come look at this!" shouted the young Tails from the pilot's cockpit, turning around to get everyone up.

"Err… umm… wha-what?" grumbled a sleepy Antoine, awoken from his slumber by the youths howling voice. _Ughh… remind me to never let a boy do a man's job in the future, less I get more sleep!_

"What is it Tails?" said Bunnie and Sally respectively.

"Well it looks like were here!" boomed Sonic in his erratic energised voice to the back, large droning emphasis on the 'here'. "Come on down guys and gals there's some room still left to come and see." He said happily with an encouraging wave that indefinitely spelled out clearly to 'come on over'.

"Okay okay, we're coming Sonic. Though how we'd all fit down there is another matter…" Sally said defeated, with a hint of retorted sarcasm.

"Ughh… this better be good ya 'fueeel'," said Antoine with a grunt.

"Ant, its 'fool' and yes it is good stuff so hurry the snails pace already!" shouted Sonic in mild annoyance at the 'twans lack of respect to him and speed.

When they were finally all assembled down front, and when the possibilities that the plane wouldn't simply nosedive with all the added weight at the front had been eliminated by Tails, he set about showing them the view ahead.

It was simply amazing, and a huge contrast they never expected to see.

Ahead of them was by no mistake of the eye, the largest known city of the Overlanders; Station Square. It was huge and buildings towered everywhere you looked, it was like a silvery and polished version of ol' Mobotropolis itself [Sally had shown Tails and Sonic pictures of it before Robotnik's coup]. And beyond it lay a mixture of earthly browns, emerald greens and azure blues of which they couldn't really make out as this range, although the city was more at the front of their minds at this moment.

The Freedom Fighters' expectations were not of this… _it's so different, so metallic but it looks so much like… so much more… than even Robotropolis is…!_

"Guys are you thinking… what I'M thinking?" piped up Bunnie, breaking away the others' similar thoughts.

"Umm… so what are you thinking that I'm should be a thinking ma lovely?" uttered Antoine in mild confusion, having not made the same link as the others had.

"Antoine…" Bunnie sighed. "Don't you see…? Station Square looks to us a more futuristic version of our very own lost Mobotropolis. That's what we noticed hun… it's slightly unnerving don't ya think Sally girl?"

"I agree, but I'm sure it's just our memories toying with us. We don't know how we are going to be perceived by the non-Robotnik Overlanders so deep inside we envision their city as a parallel of our own lost one… to like comfort our inner self's about going there? If that makes any sense anyone?" Sally slowly explained to everyone else, trending carefully not to let out her own insecurities about it all come out in the process. _I am the leader after all; I need to be the guiding strong force, not the submissive, weak and fearful one_.

"I guess so…" offered Sonic lazily. _Not as if I'd know anyway is it…?_

"Wow… Sally girl you're simply an amazing talent, it all makes perfect sense now!" gasped Bunnie in amazement, letting her bubbly self take care of the rest.

"Thanks Bunnie." Sally beamed with a smile. "Now Tails, is there anywhere as you can tell to go and land us all yet?" she then said, turning over to her serious and missionary strong spoken self.

"Hmm let me check Sally." A minute passed. "I've got it! I'm going in!" Tails boomed excitedly. "Get ready everyone."

"Get a ready for what…?" mused Antoine, having gotten meddled in his thoughts following Sally's big long explanation, of which he didn't understand really.

Afew seconds later and all was made especially clear, even to someone of Antoine's intellect as the Tornado 2 suddenly went into sky diving mode.

As the inevitable screaming, from all courts leaped in, Tails fitted with his sky goggles was holding on for dear life as he held on and steered the vessel down to a more grounded level for landing. As they screeched to the ground, the wind howled and battered them all as if they had angered it for whatever reason, prompting them all and Antoine especially to hold on dearly to a one miss Bunnie Rabbot; much to her own inner delight.

The next few moments were a whirl, literally, as Tails cranked up the gears and barrel rolled the plane and its unnerved occupants right side up (and who WOULDN'T be scared of a nippy, young nine year old piloting you in a large bi-plane or vessel?).

As the plane sailed serenely into the descending air, the other crew members were still eye shut and wondering if it was all over yet, a whimpering Antoine being all that they could really hear.

"Hehe… guys you can open your eyes now… you too Antoine!" laughed Tails giddily, the prospect of his older peers being more scared than him of things for once tickling at his funny bones.

They did indeed open them and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Gosh my lucky stars… I don't ever wanna do that again in a hurry!" moaned a slightly dizzy Bunnie; her hands rubbing her now sore head.

"Yes… Tails… sweetie? Can you warn us next time before you do that!" Sally said sweetly but with stern undergrowths to it.

"Of course Aunt Sally, I'm sorry…" the fox replied sincerely, with his head down.

"That's okie Tails darling. It's just something to remember for the next time." She said whilst ruffling her 'adopted sons' head hair. "But hey! You have loads to be proud of… I don't know any young dude who could do the same. I'm so proud of you!" she said in her motherly tone.

"Umm aren't you forgetting someone Sal?" mused an annoyed hedgehog in the back, arms crossed over one another in a teeny sulk.

"Umm… no I don't think so? I did say YOUNG, didn't I Sonic?" she remarked back with a playful smirk.

"A-ha… VERY funny…" he retorted back, utterly defeated _again_ in a spat of words by the beautiful and strong princess.

And with all this said and done, Tails manoeuvred the plane down to relatively peaceful landing right outside the southern city sector, of which you could now tell that some mountain hilly terrain would need to be walked in order to get there. Station Square was surrounded by brown earthly mountainous terrain, of varying heights, but those encompassing the city area and the outskirts were walk able without much fuss, it was the further out you got that a good old hiker career would be best suited for!

* * *

**STATION SQUARE / SOUTHERN SECTOR / 12.20 PM**

It was just another normal day in the human capital; people were out at work in order to support themselves and any family they had, mothers were either, out working, meeting with their girl friends for lunch and some were just picking up their pre-school kids, and most children were either getting ready for or were already out on their lunch recess. Needless to say, it was gonna be far from a 'normal' acting day for those in the southern sector of the city today…

It took many a nerve but they all knew they had to do it sometime; this was bound to have occurred someday in the war fraught world. It was only a matter of time that they would have to immerse themselves within the human world again, despite the painful wounds of the past; they had to move slowly on towards some form of acceptance or else let history repeat itself over and over. That time of acceptance would begin now, and with one step, they became two and three and more and they walked into the city of Overlander's as confidently as they could muster.

And as we all know all too well as fellow human beings, we notice all too well the 'outsiders' and those who look or are 'different' and reactions vary greatly in such situations, and this was by no means any different. Within seconds, everyone was starting in their direction, at the group of animals (_walking?_) their way.

"Oh my god… are those walking animals? They look so human… and yet they are not. Are the rumours of that Great War then true…?" one onlooker said astonishingly, a rough looking man and ignorant man, complete with biker gear, spiky black hair and bug like eyes.

_Oh my… so these must be the humanoid animals that the higher ups were so fussed about over all those years ago... in that despicable Great War. They don't look any dangerous to me than we are to everyone else._ A wise old lady mused, seating outside her local café and looking at the newcomers with warm curiosity, _I must welcome them to our grand little city, someone needs too at least_, she thought as she aimed to finish off her nicely chilled cup of Iced Tea.

"Oh my Sally girl… they're all looking at us. What should we do?" whispered an unnerved Bunnie.

"Just try and stay calm Bunnie, let them look, we aren't doing nothing to hurt any of them so lets just continue and look for any Robotnik activity. If we are spoken to…"

"Then what do we a do ma princesse?!" Antoine interrupted with a squeal.

"Chill Ant man… we need to stay cool, if we are spoken to then we'll reply with the best courtesy we can muster, they are no different and shouldn't be treated as such isn't that right Sal?" Sonic said calmly but firmly, in order to silence Antoine's whimpers, not being one to be afraid but as to confront it full on.

"Umm… yes that's indeed right Sonic. Thanks," said a slightly surprised Sally, _Wow… so you do have a serious and somewhat intelligent side to you Sonic… you never cease to surprise me_. She thought, slight warmth and blush threatening to appear had she not willed it down, regaining her missionary focus.

All the while, Tails looked around in awe at the vastness of the city, and whilst he was alil unnerved at the staring populace, he as a younger child and thus more in tune with his surroundings, didn't see any necessary projected malice in them at all… yet.

_Oh my… these 'things' can talk to?? What an abomination! Never did our lord say that we must share the planet with such imitations, they may talk and act human but we know that they are not, they are only imitations of which the dark one will come to wreck havoc in our holy of worlds with! What cursed wretches they are…_ cursed the local priest darkly, ignorance and malice seething through his veins in mere moments, he reflected back on his duties to the world and decided that something had to be done as he silently crept back into the church averting his eyes from the 'abominations'…

"Wow mummy! Look at those animals; they're like so human like us and beautiful! Can I go and say hi, can I?!" shouted an excited young school girl, tugging at her mummy's long skirt.

"Umm… maybe later sweetie. We have things to be done at home… now come along Sara," said the woman in question, unease rifled in her voice as she pulled her awe filled child away from the now gathering side crowds, the ones whose mutters now filled the air. "Oh…. Okie mummy…" said Sara in disappointment, giving a quick and silent wave to the beautiful auburn haired lady in front.

Sally of course, smiled back as she gave a quick wave at the sweet little girl, the quick interaction between them both serving to ease her soul, thoughts and body for the moment. _What a sweet little girl, completely unafraid of us at all, only curious… perhaps this can work after all. Maybe we all overreacted…?_

_These people… it's not that I think they would ever harm my child… but this is so new and different, I'm not sure if I could handle it… perhaps I'm not a good role model after all if I can't even teach my little girl such hazy things in the world…_ These thoughts and more hummed through Sara's mothers head, regrets of falling into the stereotype of ignoring these that are different, or in this case the 'mobians' and running instead of embracing new people and ideals.

Meanwhile, in the street sidewalks the mutterings continued.

"What the hell do you think they are… some sort of aliens?"

"Oh come on… our President isn't that interesting that he'd converse or collaborate with aliens…"

"Hmm maybe… though G.U.N. is another question entirely don't ya think?"

"I like them; they're so furry and yet cool looking. And if they're just like us and can talk and stuff then all the better I say, the world would be more interesting at least," interrupted a laid-back dude smoothly, coupled with tilted down black sun shades on, with a hint of excited curiosity; the like of whom looked to be in his early twenties.

"Hmph… what would you know Sandy? You're too open-minded for your own good. You wouldn't harm an alien if he was cutting your arm off!" scoffed the old bat of a woman and her roguish partner, all the while smoking her cigarette.

"Yeah yea… whatever you say, Doris," yawned Sandy without much bother in his voice as he waved off her 'insult'. He instead turned back his attention to the small group, with curious fascination in his eyes. _What an interesting day this has turned out to be… and now the start of new relations with the mobians will begin. Its times like these, the beginnings of something new and wonderful that really entice society forward, or at least that's what I hope for…_

_Hmm yes, Sandy you're too young minded for your own good. The last time we encountered them it was trouble, today and the future will be no different…_retorted Doris silently to herself, turning back to her husband to be as she'd grown tired of the newcomers already.

* * *

**STATION SQUARE / SOUTHERN SECTOR / STATION SQUARE HOTEL OUTSKIRTS / 12.31 PM**

And now back with the Freedom Fighters, they had reached the main turn off point, and still had the odd stares here and there but by now most people had seen or heard of them, news did indeed travel _fast_ in the city. They were now outside of the big marbled structured Station Square hotel which overlooked a small strand of beach bay that lead out into the big old southern seas. Sally noted the huge plant pots and overhanging flower baskets that the building had surrounding it, and it pleased her to no end to have found some humans that found solace in nature, no little nor big.

Looking around she could see another main road arching off somewhere, _probably leads into the downtown area_, she thought. And a building and series of glass tubes suspended in the air was across the street, the overhead sign read 'Twinkle Park', _definitely sounds like some kids amusement park…_

"Aunt Sally, where should we go to next? We haven't seen any sign of Robotnik here at least…" asked Tails, still looking at his surroundings, and for a second or two he'd swear that he had seen some people in the shadows, _watching and looking at us…_

"Hmm… He's got a good point Sally girl. I think we should try and look for some outlet of information to help us. We are _new_ here after all," Bunnie expressed, holding onto Antoine's arm in order to stop him freaking or worse getting lost, at least, that's what she told herself it was for anyhow.

"Well why don't we just ask someone? It's not that hard guys!" Sonic moaned as he was getting slightly fed up with this awkwardness; then again his circumstances were much apart from their own…

"Sonic is right, we're gonna have to talk to someone sooner or later; whatever happens will happen, right?" said Sally as she built up her own courage, remembering and speaking part of Sonic's own life long 'philosophy' in the process.

"Ah, oh my god guys… catch it on film; catch it on camera cos like a picture this will last longer… Sally just said that I'm right about something!" Sonic shouted with great energy and sarcasm, parading it for all praise he could get to everyone around, prompting face faults from his fellow comrades and stares that said 'weirdo' aimed right at him from passers by.

"Grr… SONIC WILL YOU PLEASE STOP DOING THAT!" screamed Sally, having had it yet again with the blue rodent's show off attitude… She sighed, _and just when I thought he had one serious bone in his body too… What a typical child!_

"Okie okay Sal! Chill…. It was just a joke," The blue hedgehog pleaded with erratic arm and hand movements. "But you have to admit, it's a rare moment you ever acknowledge my talents…" the blue hog trailed off again…

_Oh oh…_ Bunnie, Tails and Antoine all thought. _Don't ever tempt Sally girl when she's in a foul mood already with ya… Man oh man he's dug himself a grave this time round, what a 'foole'… hasn't he learnt by now __**not**__ to speak back to Aunt Sally? It looks not…_

"Sonic… To save the crowd and my fellow friends' ears from tearing again by shouting at you, I will say this. Do NOT speak back to me like that; you know full well that I acknowledge your abilities. They just aren't usually the knowledgeable kind… I said that you were right this time, now can we just drop this please?" Sally explained strongly but quietly to Sonic's face so he would get the point.

"Sure Sally, I understand. Just don't underestimate me, it's very hurtful," said Sonic sincerely but with a 'feel sorry for me' like face on.

Sally sighed again, "Okie okay… I'll take more account of your 'wisdom' in the future, now let's press on…" and then she proceeded to leave with Bunnie and the rest.

"Hey… hey! I saw that dumb looking finger emphasis you did there Sally, that was a sly move! You still haven't made this up yet!" shouted the hedgehog after them all, as he got left behind.

He didn't have far to go as they stopped for him, Sally smirking and giggling to herself all the way. "Glad you could join us Sonic," she said to him. "Do you care to stand around and argue all day or go and kick 'Robuttnik's butt' and whatever evil scheme he's cooked up?" she said reassuringly, which was enough to silent the truest blue, this time round at least.

* * *

**STATION SQUARE / SOUTHERN SECTOR / OUTSIDE TWINKLE PARK / 12.45 PM**

"Hmm we still need to find some kind of information hull…" Bunnie recited to herself out loud, so everyone could hear.

"Well let's go on and go ask someone, someone is bound to…" Sally started, before she was cut off by another two very different voices.

"I can help you with that," the two voices had said, a third younger voice hovering in the background.

The gang turned around to find two very different looking people, one was noticeably older (being the old lady with her cup of Iced Tea from earlier) and the other a middle aged mother (_with the little girl Sara tagging speedily behind her_).

The old woman was small in height, just around Tails' own height and dressed in a red garbed top and a dark purple lengthy 'skirt'. Her hair was silvery white and her eyes small and azure coloured but were full of wisdom, that much Sally and Bunnie could tell from the offset at least.

As for the other woman, she was obviously a mother of at least one child judging from the mutters the little girl tugging at her long black skirt was saying. She had curly messy black hair, green/grey coloured eyes and her face was showing her age, wrinkles had started to appear and she looked rather tired.

_I wonder if mother may have been like this woman, giving me her all whilst not taking care of herself or is that just selfish thinking? I don't remember much about her at all_, Sally sadly thought.

The little girl was the complete picture perfect opposite of her mother, Antoine noted. She had long luscious vibrant blonde hair with golden locks that he had to admit rivalled his own… She was dressed in what looked cotton made thin jacket which was mainly dark blue with black and white buttons to enable it to come off and on with ease. Her school attire was complete with a long grey thick skirt that came down just over her knees and a pair of black newly polished black uniform fitting shoes.

Her face was pale white but beautifully crafted, like a finished masterpiece of an angel. And her eyes were golden brown and locked with their own, she was ecstatic and excited but moreover, very curious.

"I'm sorry to interrupt… do please go on before me," The motherly woman insisted to the small yet vibrant old lady, in front of the bemused Freedom Fighters.

_Man oh man, I knew that we should've just gone up and said hello and all that jazz to someone, look at us, we're like celebrities already!_ Sonic thought with amusement.

"Oh no, that is quite alright, I may be old but I've learned the great art of patience, do please dear go ahead," The older lady said calmly and politely.

"Okie then, thank you very much," the mother replied, bowing slightly to honour her respect to her still senior elders, before turning to face the Freedom Fighters assemble.

"Hello there, my daughter and I just wanted to welcome you to the city. I mean we saw you earlier… but to honest I was a little afraid. But Sara here, she convinced me to stop worrying and we followed you here, if there is anything you need to ask then do so, we've lived here our whole lives so we know it pretty well!" The lady spoke slowly, at first with shuttered nerves but by the end she had become more vibrant and energised in her voice, confidence flowing greatly through it as though a chip off her shoulder had been removed.

Sally stepped forward, ready for her first negotiations and embraces with the kindred humans that lived here. "Thank you very much, on behalf of the Royal Family of Acorn, I, Princess Sally and my assembled friends thank you very much for your kind courtesy. Whilst everyone else watched and stared, you three came out and spoke to us all, that makes you far better people I think, especially when you had your own initial reservations of us. It's a great duty to come to the great human city," She replied warmly and with a sincere bow.

"Thank you, your highness, so may I ask who the rest of your abodes…are?"the woman replied, pleasantly surprised at the mention of royalty amongst them.

Before Sally could reply, she was interrupted. "Wow! Mummy, she said she was a princess, a real princess! I thought they were only true in fairy tales?" squealed the golden locked fair child, excitement buzzing behind her wide eyes and she than began to walk towards Sally and the others, slowly.

"Hey mummy, can I go and say hello to the Princess and all her friends?" she said quietly, her eyes shining with contained excitement and curiosity.

"Of course honey, go right ahead," her mother smiled, nudging her head in the general direction as if to say 'go ahead'.

As Sara approached, Sally knelt down so she could be more on her level, "Hi Princess, I just wanted to say hello to you all, and that I think you're really beautiful!" Sara said, and practically all in one sentence without any breathes in-between.

Sally was taken back by Sara's forwardness, but smiled greatly in return to her kind words, it certainly warmed her heart just to be around children again, and those who didn't have to put off with the ugly warring world outside. "Thank you very much; it's a pleasure to meet you all," she said happily, rising to her feet and extending out her hand for them all to shake.

"So who are all your friends Princess Sally? Are they your servants, and is one of them your prince?" said the little naïve Sara again, all in a rush of excitement.

"Ha-ha… No, they are not my servants, they are just my good loyal friends of whom I lucky to have and count on if I should ever need it. As for my prince, well I do not have one; I'm very busy all the time, so I wouldn't have time for one anyway," she said warmly, truthfully, as she stroked her hand through Sara's meadow of golden hair, a little chuckle escaping her as she thought about the whole prince idea in fairytales. _How silly it was really, but if it makes this young girl aspire to do good things and be happy then so be it I must say._

_

* * *

  
_

Sally then began to introduce all her friends, "This is Bunnie, she is my best girl friend and also my very reliable hairdresser and battle backup," she said as Bunnie knelt down in front of Sara to show herself to her more directly.

Sara's eyes were drawn to Bunnie almost as much as she had been to Sally initially upon first sight, _she looks so beautiful but what's with the…_"Umm… Miss Bunnie?" she said slowly with her head down. "Yes hun, what do ya wanna ask me?" Bunnie replied with a warm smile and her eyes wide open.

"Well… I just want you to know that I think you look as amazingly beautiful as Sally and strong… but what's with all that metal over you, are you sick or something?!" she said with wide shocked eyes, clearly worried about her new friends' well being.

This question suddenly frizzed her, though she admitted inwardly that she should've expected it. "Umm… well I'm not sick, but… this was the work of an evil man, someone far far away from here but Sally and everyone saved me. He's someone that we aiming to stop because of his evil ways," she replied, slowly and with sadness dripping from her voice, and her eyes downcast as if she wanted to cry.

"Aww I'm sorry Miss Bunnie, I didn't want to make you cry! I'm sorry…" Sara said her voice all wobbly and her eyes sad and tearful.

"No, it's ok little one… Ya asked the question and I told ya the truth, I didn't mean to upset you either," Bunnie said, her face covered with falling tears, and then she turned towards Sara's mother. "I'm so sorry that I made your daughter cry, I didn't mean to… it's just that…" she said in a rush, but the mother hushed her and told her that it was okay, and that she never would have guessed someone could be so cruel.

Another minute pasted, as Bunnie and Sara each finished leaking their respective tears and wiping them away.

"So once you beat the bad man, will you be turn back to normal?" Sara asked curiously. And this time Bunnie didn't cry, but instead gave a hopeful smile.

"If I have anything to say about it, then yes, I'll be… normal once again," she articulated boldly, in an act that comforted both Sara and herself, and promptly ending the subject here.

Sally went all on to introduce everyone else, all of whom looked to be 'good people' and 'cool' to Sara at least. Sonic was a big hit with her, what with his sheer 'past cool' personality, 'blueness' and extremely 'wow…' uttering super sonic speed.

Bunnie, whom she had already been formally introduced to, was also a top fave in her heart for she was 'warm, cuddly, beautiful and a burst of fun all in one' in Sara's words, which almost set Bunnie off again in tears [of joy], but she didn't.

Antoine was without a doubt the more 'serious type', although his 'funny attempts' at French were amusing, as well as his silly childish faces he tried to pull off (to a non-baby person), needless to say he was a lower hit but a hit all the same (which warmed Antoine's heart a bit he had to admit).

Sara liked Tails alot also, mainly for his twin tails and his cute appearance; and she definitely liked him after a quick whirl in the sky at his courtesy.

An hour or three rolled by and unfortunately for Sara, it was time to say goodbye, for the time being at least as her new found 'hero friends' had things to be doing and after waving the young girl & her mother off on their way home, that's what they did.

* * *

**STATION SQUARE / SOUTHERN SECTOR / OUTSIDE TWINKLE PARK / 3.56 PM**

As the sun began its early descent into the round basin at the world's end, Sally began to speak again after the departure of their new found friends.

"Wow… that was so nice. Ya know? I'm so glad that we came here today…" Sally said almost as if she was dreaming, her voice filled with passion and kindness; as she turned round to dazzle off a smile to the others, her arms playfully tucked behind her back.

"Yeah me too Sally girl. Me too…just making that lil Sara smile, and laugh and happy just reminded me of why we should all be doing everything we do for. To protect the innocent, uphold the peace and restore Mother Mobius to how it was… and _never_ allow these lil dear children's hearts to be broken and scarred… like Robotnik did to all of us…" Bunnie said agreeing full heartily with her, her arm shook with resonating determination to her overwhelming words of strength

"We will, Bunnie, we'll all promise to do it together!" Sally said in a thunderous tone, as one would use to rally their supporting troops.

"YEAH!" everyone shouted in union, their thoughts as one.

"Umm… excuse me, but you said before that you were looking for a place that you could gather information on your Robotnik character's possible movements here in our city?" The old woman said slowly and clearly, whom was still around, despite all the interruptions and eventual playful amusements enacted by Sara's arrival before.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! Do forgive me ma'am! I didn't mean to-" Sally shouted in a rushed tone filled with worry and distraught, she having not been one raised to stand or personally condone 'rude behaviours', especially those rare occasions that it come on her own behalf.

Thankfully, she didn't have to worry much more as the calm faced woman of wisdom just held up her hand with a smile and waved it off before then speaking again.

"No, that is quite alright my dear. I know that you all meant no disrespect, and I do have to admit that I enjoyed watching you handle that sweet child with such devotion and responsibly, making her and her mother happy, just as I am to have met you this day. Just from that… and by looking at each and every one of you, I need not be a psychic to know that you all have kindred spirits, warrior moulded ones, and ones that have been scarred many a time by this enemy you seek, as well as that previous god forsaken war…"

As she said that, her eyes hung with sadness at the brutal savagery and unforgiving nature of living beings. She recovered within seconds and turned around to go and sit down on a nearby stone step before continuing, her hands cupped in her lap.

"It is then quite understandable that you had your reservations about coming here, but like I said, today you made three people happy and honoured to have met you. I can only bless your kind souls in achieving every one of your goals and that you touch more people's lives here as you did ours," And after that she gave her blissful smile, which probably held many a gem of wisdom left to tell, before saying one last thing to the hooked Freedom Fighters.

"The nearest information stand is this city is the Station Square Metro, just down the road there my lovelies. Seeing as it's ran by G.U.N. there's no disputing its authenticity when it comes to the latest and greatest news scoops!" She pointed off down the road and then they said their farewells.

"Yea, Sal and Bunnie, I'm definitely glad that we came here today. We meet some fab new people today, and have one lil Freedom Fighter fan already!" Sonic said excitedly, and now raring to get down to some adventure and action!

Sally smiled at him and then decided that it was time to move out. "Okie guys, lets all head down to this newspaper stand and see if we can't find any dirt on Robotnik and his activities."

"Umm… Sal?" Sonic warily said, raising his hand up like a kid would in school.

"Yes… Sonic? What is it now?" The princess said with a sigh, with her arms crossed at her sides, looking at him to see what good excuse he had to back out this time...

"Well… Newspapers and loads of technicality info stuff isn't really my scene so I was wondering if I could go check out the city, ya know and then report back?" the cobalt blue hedgehog said in reply, with obvious boredom regarding the info stuff in question if his jumping up and down like a lil excited kid antics were anything to say.

"Hey can I come too Sonic? That'd be so wicked!" Tails boomed in excitement, and joining Sonic's side in a heartbeat.

"Umm… well I was kinda wanting to go it alone this time… But hey! We can do another time lil bro? I promise ya, we will," Sonic awkwardly replied to his lil 'bro' and best friends, trying his best to make the excuses sound plausible. Its not that he didn't want Tails around, far from it as he loved his company, but he just felt like taking some 'lone time for awhile.

Needless to say, the poor 'hero praising' fox didn't understand it all too well, his eyes turning slightly sad with upset. "Aww… oh okay Sonic. Well have fun…" Tails spoke out, with a shaky tone. Sonic said his goodbyes quickly to them, completely missing Tail's lil 'sulk' and then boom! He was gone and off at super sonic speed!

"Come on Tails… He didn't mean anything by it, even big boy heroes need their 'me' time alone sometimes. He's just not very good at expressing himself clearly, that's all. Okay Tails?" said Sally in her motherly smooth voice, petting through his young and soft head hairs as she did. Her eyes locking with his, as she waited for an answer.

"… Yeah okay Aunt Sally. I'll… try and bear that in mind," Tails said with a false smile to her, _maybe she's right, maybe I am just overreacting… or it is that Sonic doesn't want me to come with him… maybe I am just extra baggage… If only I could be like him someday… then no one would treat me as a lil kid anymore and as a hero!_ Tails glumly thought to himself, before being dragged off by Bunnie to get to their destination.

_Just be careful Sonic… who knows what's out there…_

_

* * *

  
_

**STATION SQUARE / SOUTHERN SECTOR / OUTSIDE TWINKLE PARK / 4.40 PM**

Sonic had gone speeding off, as a blue blur whizzing through the crowd filled streets of the city. _News has spread fast of our arrival here_, he thought, _my… what gossipy creatures we have here, they could probably give Bunnie and Sal a lesson or two haha_. He had to chuckle at the thought, sometimes he simply did not understand girls and their obsession with hair, makeup and the like!

The 'blue whiz' was now starting to show off his aerobatic skills now to the stare ridden crowds, by performing fancy leaps, spins and rolls from one car to the next. _Haha… wee this is fun! They like me; they really want a piece of the good old sonic style!_ The hedgehog thought to himself, grinning like a giddy madman all the while.

Unfortunately the party was about to end as blue blaring sirens were the next thing everyone heard and within seconds the crowd had begin to rapidly disperse, not wanting to 'get done' or in 'trouble' with the local G.U.N. trained police force over the public ruckus the blue hedgehog thing was making.

"Hey! Hey! Where is everyone going, what's that noise?" shouted the blue hedgehog to everyone around, suddenly confused at the quickly turned situation.

The sturdily built police standard cars came skidding around the wide roads corner just instants later, their police horn lights blaring a sky blue colour around and around. The golden emblem of G.U.N. was star shaped with a blue and then red band surround it, and was plastered onto its main hull as well as the on both sides of the car. It all looked very typically American like to be quite precise.

They rocketed across the town square in moments and headed off along the main road, and Sonic was about take off after them but then he noticed a strange sparkling orb of light dance across the quickly setting dusk sky, going from rooftop to rooftop.

_Hmm, what in the world is that? Strange lil thing…it's as though it's following someone…? _

"Oh well, it probably doesn't have anything to do with us or Robotnik anyway…" Sonic said, brushing it off as nothing as he somersaulted off the blue greyish coloured car bonnet he'd been prancing around on and onto the main dirty yellow like pavement curb.

"But ah yeah!" he shouted with bold excitement. "This looks like happening stuff! I wonder what's up?" he carried on, the good old burning, exciting anticipation building up in his stomach already, which was the same he always got whenever a new adventure was on the way. _And oh how I love a good action packed adventure!_

"Now which way did they go…?" he asked himself, and with his eyes dotting around he soon found his answer in one of those handy 'important and fun places to see' signs; _ah I see... so they went to the City Hall! Well here I come!_

_

* * *

  
_

**STATION SQUARE / CENTRAL SECTOR / OUTSIDE CITY HALL / 4.55 PM**

And with a super sonic speed light dash he was off and soon arrived outside of the described City Hall of Station Square, _so this is where the human dudes make their big old decisions about yada yada… Must be like when King Acorn was around or something..._ Sonic thought to himself, although he didn't know just how wrong he was, about his brief comparison between how a democracy and a monarchy run things, and in this city in particular, things weren't always as they seemed…

The City Hall itself was pretty bland, at least to what Sonic was used to, what with natural made housing settlements back in Knothole and his former home. It was constructed in an almost crescent moon like orientation that hugged the nearby vicinities with 'open arms'; it was then not surprisingly quite wide in comparison to its height, which wasn't all that much.

The bricking work was of a dark maroon like pink colour and the windows were dark blue tinted and seemly non-transparent as no one, even Sonic, couldn't really see through them much at all. A small but wide traditional bell clock tower spire hung over the surrounding area, although it was by no means the tallest establishment in the city by far, that was absolutely certain. It was surrounded by medium height walls, of the same dark pinkish colour but with slabs of dull grey to go with it, and with a dark blue greyish entry fence, which was wide open and surrounded by police cars!

Seeing the human police force surrounding the building, immediately toggled his senses, _it looks like I was right, something is definitely up! But what could it be…_

He immediately noticed it then, a creature of a height slightly bigger than his own, and what looked to be made out of solid unified water was their target…

_What the hell…_

A commanding shout from the plump-sized captain of police soon disrupted Sonic's thoughts … with a bang.

"You are completely surrounded! Surrender yourself vile creature!" he boomed, his shiny and trusty silver magnum held firm and primed straight at the watery mystery, before he then tilted his dark hair covered head and issued command to his gathered platoon.

_Wow… what confidence, but his eyes look so hard and cold, is that what it takes to carry out such a position…? Well I guess I'll soon see whether they can hack this water creature!_ Sonic thought warily to himself, before looking back on the unfolding action.

"Lock on target men! Ready? Fire!" the big burly man screamed, with the command seeing through to its completion within seconds. From their swift actions and concentrated eyes, these were no rookies, that much was certain…

The deafening sounds of guns blazing ensured and all went straight through the water creature's form, and he stood unfazed. It was obvious to any spectators and especially the police platoon themselves, that the bullets were gonna have no effect on this monstrosity.

"Oh no! Our weapons are useless!" barked a wimpy sounding police soldier behind the commanding officer.

_God damn it! What the hell is this thing?! Ugh… the boss is not gonna be happy about this but…_the captain quickly thought with anger, his face turning into a hard frustrated scowl at he did so before doing something he _never_ liked to do.

"Okay men, retreat! I repeat, all personnel, fall back!" he boomed one last time, the bile already rising in his throat over this mission failure. _Fucking hell! The boss wanted this thing stopped but also a good long look at it… I wonder what the hell he was thinking…_ he thought, as he and his men quickly scurried away as quickly as they had came, they were like shadows in the night, and then they were gone.

_Hmm this looks bad, but no biggie, it's my turn now!_ The blue hedgehog thought, a smirk already coming across fast on his face.

"Ah, yeah! This should be fun!" he shouted, a huge grin on his face as he flipped on over into the Town Hall vicinity and stared down quickly the watery being.

* * *

**STATION SQUARE / CENTRAL SECTOR / OUTSIDE CITY HALL / 5.01 PM**

There was no staring for long as both combatants suddenly leaped into life at one another, and both narrowly missed the other.

_Ah man, he's fast! For a big tub of water anyway… but man that felt weird, I was sure I was gonna hit him…Oh oh! Here he comes again!_

The liquid creature arched backwards and then with his three fingered watery right hand, he quickly extended it into a stabbing motion at the cobalt blue wonder. And he didn't miss this time around.

"Ugh!" Sonic shouted out in pain, as he was swatted away into a nearby wall. _Damn that packed a punch! But when he touched me, I also felt something else… it was like a huge rush of…_

And saving the rest of that thought for later, he then primed himself into his classic spin dash spiked ball shape and let loose with the usual forceful method of attack he'd successfully implemented so many times before. Unfortunately for him, the results were not only completely unexpected but also very unpleasant. _Oh my god. Oh no!_ He thought in a sudden rush of panic, as he tried desperately to frail his arms and legs free. This was sparked even moreso by the simple fact that his heart rate was already increasing rapidly, so much so that it was beginning to hurt and it just wasn't showing any signs of slowing down!

You see when Sonic had attempted his traditional 'spin dash' method of defeating his enemy (as any good game veteran will know), he had unfortunately not fully realised the full potential over water that the creature had and he had trapped the poor frantic hedgehog within his bloated and stretched form.

The added fact that this hedgehog naturally hated being in water, especially such huge quantise of it, like many a cat does, did nothing but increase Sonic's rarely seen fearful side.

_Oh god damn it! Man, I screwed it up big time! I…have to… GET OUT OF HERE!_ Screamed the pressing thoughts of the panic stricken hedgehog, as he tried endlessly to claw his way out of this watery entrapment; the possibility of blacking out increasing in his list of possibilities all the while.

The increased bloated form of the creature looked like a large spherical bubble, with a small droned head formed into 3 'spines' coming of it, and a glowing pink squishy brain like matter pulsated within the core of its head. It loomed over the immediate area of the City Hall, dazzling azure-coloured flashes erupting now and again from within it.

_Damn it! I have to think, I have to… calm myself down and think of a way outta this! I can't breathe in this… water for much… longer_, the sonic vibrating hedgehog though to himself whilst he tried to build up sonic momentum to break open an opening in the watery 'things' form.

It was only when he tried to calm himself that his thoughts from earlier crept back into his frontal memory, as he realised just what he felt earlier and now was feeling in thunderous endless torrents of within the creature's watery being.

His eyes widened in horror at the uncanny realisation, _it was a rush of fear I felt before!_ _So… this thing can heighten ones fears to creepy horrific levels, and now I'm feeling it in spades. I'm literally shaking here, like my heart wants to just break free from my chest! It's just making my stupid fear of water even worse… Oh, how I'm glad the others aren't here to see me like this..._ he thought, his eyes firmly closed and his teeth and fists clenched so hard, that he could open a flesh wound at any given second. The only good feeling remaining within himself at that moment was that his team-mates… his friends, wouldn't be able to see him in such a 'weak' and poor state.

And keeping a tight hold on that last remaining beacon of happiness within his raging and fearing body & mind, he finally came up with a solution to break free, and it was just as well as he was already starting to see black stars as he began to fall unconscious.

He painfully rolled himself into a cocoon again and at the super sonic speed of light he used his last chance attack. His deus ex machina, as you will. With all the extreme sonic vibrations resonating within and outside his body, Sonic managed to create an azure coloured mini tornado, one which sloshed and whirled the creature around like a rag doll in its vortex; which was just what Sonic wanted to hear and see!

In a heart beat he was outta there! But as soon as victory seemed neigh, his former prisoner came raining back into his life and quickly reformed its original shape, needless to say if he had a mouth and voice he'd have cursed… but his eyes, his glowing green eyes said it all… he was pissed and ready to melee!

The raging beast lunged like a hungry predator did its prey, but Sonic was well wised up on him now due to his 'traumatic experience'. He'd realised that on the ground he was mostly sluggish in his attacking mannerisms, and thus he easily strafed another of the water creature's' watery punches.

And whilst he continued to out manoeuvre his foe, some pressing thoughts droned on his mind; _so this 'monster' has the strange ability to cause fear eh? Fits the typical monster of the week mould I guess, if you're a horror film fanatic. Though it's not that I've ever seen anything like this… this creature is truly unique._

Sonic somersaulted to avoid a sudden concentrated burst of torrential water from his foe, and contemplated his next method of attack. _Damn it, that one almost got me! He's gotten smarter and wise to my way of thinking in battle, and all in the space of the last 10 or so minutes? What an opponent I have here!_

But as he ducked and slid across the concrete ground from the next brawled onslaught he realised that as with every opponent and every person, _there is always a weakness! No matter how small or large, everyone has a natural flaw of some kind!_

It was then he noticed it, _oh of course! Why didn't I take note of it before!_ And as Sonic and the creature had a short staring standoff, Sonic's eyes were focused on his prize, _as with every living creature there is always a central place, a core, and for us and this monster, it's that pink brain pulsating in his head!_

He took a last ditch 'lunge of faith' in order to personally smack the slimy brain and render the walking menace, _at least until the others get here and we can contain it… whatever it may be._ Unfortunately it didn't work as the creature of liquid had also come up trumps in the planning area, seeing its disadvantage on the ground he now leapt into the air and bounced from building to building side in order to take out Sonic from the air!

_Ugh… crap, he's changed his methods again. I have to avoid him; if I get caught again then I'm toast!_ Sonic thought quickly, narrowly dodging one large spear-shaped creature formed attack and landing, quite pathetically and flat on his face, in a bruised heap by one of the City Hill's supporting pillars.

His opponent had now stopped its 'playful' bouncing sessions and was slithering over to Sonic's side, towering over him and intending to deal the last blow to his fallen foe.

But Sonic dashed at him and just as he'd planned, the creature had dodged it but his form had then thumped violently against the building walls. The water monster was angry yet again and it leaped into the air like a pissed Eagle on speed and with its claws extended outwards he rocketed speedily down to earth.

_That's it buddy, you just keep coming on down… Just a little closer… And now!_

And with a last sonic boom the blue streamlined hedgehog sailed effortlessly through the air as though it were paper, and with his trendy spin dash he dealt an all giving blow to the creature's brain; the latter having gone too far into it in order to stop, and thus Sonic's blow left it brutally paralysed (as he wasn't up to his full strength).

Sonic stared it down and watched it as the creature violently shook, and then it dispersed itself into finer water particles and became a puddle and swiftly slithered off.

"Hey ya, big watery monster… thing! Where do you think you're going?" Sonic shouted after it, trying to catch up, but he failed and it slithered away down a nearby drainage hole and far away.

"Oh man, it got away!" Sonic mumbled and cursed to himself.

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"Sonic! So there you are!" shouted a familiar voice, belonging to the blue jacket wearing Princess Sally Acorn as she and the others ran up the 'garden path' of the City Hall as you may and rejoined their estranged blue hedgehog friend.

"Wow thee hedgehog looks beat, been trying to be a big hero man again ya silky 'fool'?" said a slightly amused Antoine, at seeing his 'rival' for Sally's affections so obviously rough and worn out.

"Oh put a cork in it 'twan!" Sonic lashed out with rage, clutching his stitch aching side, which prompted Tails and Bunnie to act as his subtle support.

"Aww ya poor sugah hog… just what the hells name happened here?" said Bunnie, concerned for her friends immediate well being, as she and Tails supported him as they walked on out of the deserted City Hall.

"Ughh… thanks guys… but I can manage myself from him on end okay?" the blue wonder said with a pained smirk as he forced himself to stagger on his feet and keep up with the rest.

"Okay, have it your way you stubborn lil hedgehog, but tell us… what happened Sonic?" Sally asked firmly and directly, with her arms crossed, the whole shebang.

"Okay it started out like this…" Sonic began, and as they walked (or staggered) away, he retold the tale (leaving out his personal traumas within the watery beast) of the evening. And as they looked for a place to stay the night, they were unaware that they were being watched…

From a highly exclaimed penthouse that loomed over most of the city, he had watched it all. From the pitiful attempts at gunning Chaos down to Sonic's desperate moments within Chaos and to Chaos' raging moment of mistake. And he had enjoyed the show immensely, for you see, the man in question was none other than our own Doctor Robotnik, and for him this was just the opening act...

"What pathetic fools, you know nothing! Chaos, the God of Destruction will be the doom of you and your merry butch once and for all! Haha!" laughed the manic doctor across the starry night skies of Station Square, all to himself.

_And now the true potential of Chaos will be sought and unleashed!_

_It's time for the quest for the Chaos Emeralds…_

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And thus ends the fifth chapter of this story arc!

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**The Freedom Fighters are taking a break on their Station Square travels for now, but one blue hedgehog at least knows of the danger that Chaos poses for them all. **

**Next chapter we turn the focus onto our last key player in the saga as we move on to see how Amy Rose is doing since she started living in Station Square just over a year ago… How and why? Well stay tuned, and also my 3 OCs will turn up for the first time in the next chapter so yay! And they'll be appearing much more even after the saga has ended, but yeah be prepared for a long behemoth and girly oriented chapter next time! :-p**

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Now for some random musings on the way I dealt my character portrayals in this chapter:

With Bunnie's character, I hope it did her some justice this time around. I know I made her abit overly emotional but it was to do with her half robotic self, and that would get to anyone now and again. In the eyes of Sara, she just had to break down.

So yeah, hopefully I'll be better with her and her 'southern accent' ways when she gets into battle later on, as they'll be no more 'emotional stuff' for the rest of this saga.

**This chapter was essentially just a MAJOR setup point for the characters and several plotlines. **

Sally's character is still something I'm trying to get into, she's a very complex self motivated leader and she has to shut off her heart in order to do what has to do; I hope that sorta came across. Again comments and criticism for all of this would be simply marvellous and helpful!

Antoine I think I did quite well; he's the soldier's son so for me he would have a lot of self expectations that either his father or himself may have laid down for him and that would serve to explain his seemly 'arrogant' and headstrong ways.

Again, I don't know any French and right now putting even subtle bits of French in his sentences is a tad awkward… if anyone knows a better way of doing Antoine's speech then let me know!

Tails is going well, and as with the original game, this saga will serve to heighten his confidence in his own abilities and slowly build up him up to a hero in his own right.

I'm glad with what I achieved with Sonic's character thus far, what with his cocky and cheekiness, to his rare but sometimes good thinking and ideas to one of his life long phobias; that being of great amounts of water and swimming in it etc.

The Sonic being 'trapped in the watery prison' of Chaos' own body was a personal shout out to the simply awesome Sonic the Comic (UK comic) series, and their unique take on the Sonic Adventure game.

And to the game in question I always wondered why it was never even briefly stated or shown, that Sonic just simply can't stand swimming or entrapment by waters of any kind; I thought what with Chaos being the star (other than Tikal and the other new characters), that it would have been a case to showcase that somehow, to show off that Sonic does in fact have WEAKNESSES and phobias like everyone does.

Then again Sega don't seem to be doing a good job since Heroes of late, especially in humanising its main set of characters, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised lol.

And yes the technique he used to break free of Chaos was in fact a practice and un-mastered form of his future Sonic Wind technique from SA2.

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Again I'll probably update by the end of the month depending on things in life etc.

Take care ya'll ^-^


	6. O Heavenly Bodies, Why Am I In The World

"**With our Freedom Fighter's still trying to track down Robotnik and Sonic recovering from his first traumatic encounter with Chaos; it is now time to see what the young Amy Rose has been up to since she left Knothole a year ago and eventually settled into living in none other than Station Square itself…" **

_This chapter also features the first of the LOST style centric flashbacks._

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**Disclaimer**: _I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

_Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "**Change The World**" by ARTIST Dream_

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**CHAPTER 6: O Heavenly Bodies, Why Am I In This World?**

_FLASHBACK_

[_NARRATOR'S POV_]

_It was a fairly normal day, the sunlight from the mobian sun high above stroked and bathed the planet below, its handy work showing fruit with the green forests and wildlife, or at least what remained of such things on this part of the planet. _

_For in this war ridden time, the green planet of Mobius was slowly fading away, due to the work of the devil like man, Robotnik, who was slowly but surely sucking the very planet dry and for the Mobians who resisted him they only knew that such stabs at the planet's natural helm would only serve to increase the critical extinction levels of their kind at a more rapid race than ever before._

_But our story isn't to do with him, at least not today. Our quarry just happens to be traversing by her lonesome through the forbidden, vast desert that those who feared it nicknamed the "Wasteland", as that simply was all it was now._

_This young girl wandered, almost as though she were a lifeless marionette doll whose soul had been trapped away, her eyes did not share much through their hazy and faint green hues but that alone was enough to say that she still very much among the living; the problem was she just didn't feel like she was._

_Her only thoughts were those that were rifled with sadness, pain and regrets, and that was the only comfort she had with her now as she walked and walked at an increasingly erratic pace that swiftly became running; to nowhere in particular at all._

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_My name is Amy Rose, and I originally hailed from somewhere far away; a place that thanks to that cold hearted tyrant Robotnik no longer exists. My mother, my father and all of my friends… all gone in an instant._

_Amidst all the chaos me and my cousin had faced in getting to the sanctuary, the one everyone around deemed Knothole, I was rescued by them… the Knothole Freedom Fighters… and by him. That was when Sonic the Hedgehog first blasted into my life, when he saved me from Robotnik's newest creation sent to kill him. _

_And since 'joining' the Knothole Freedom Fighter's thereafter, I'd been running after him ever since, I love him, or at least I think I do. I always tried to tell him, to let him know that I was there and that I could help with whatever was needed. That's what someone does when they're in love right? _

_But then again they don't raise their voice and shout at you either do they… _

_He never did notice or acknowledge my presence much thinking back; to him I was probably just a silly little girl whom couldn't ever be anything that he wanted anyway. It's not like I'm any kind of fighter or particularly smart, like some I can think of, or just anything like the rest, so I realised that I was in fact utterly useless. _

_That is all I am to them... that is what I tell myself, the truth over and over again. All that time spent running after him, that sweet blue hedgehog, the hero of heroes, and look where it ended. My eyes start to swell up with cerulean tears again, the dry greyish trails of earlier are already visible, becoming ugly rivers once again as tears sprint down my flushed face. _

_I'm nothing compared to him or Sally… I thought glumly, which made my stomach clamp up and constrict painfully when my minds eye saw how great the princess and her blue 'shining knight' were together. They fitted together seemly perfectly. Not like stupid old me…I couldn't ever be as great as her, or Bunnie, even Tails actually helps out. _

_Now look who is running away and making excuses, I chuckled to myself incoherently, due to all the lack of vision or passion in my voice that I had left. I wiped my swollen eyes with my worn white hand gloves and turned around to make sure that I wasn't being followed by any Badnik patrol. I wasn't thankfully, but in the distance I could immediately tell that the more exotic sheltered undergrowths of the Great Forest, and the secret hideaway of Knothole itself, were far from view now._

_Far from view, far from mind is what they say right?_

_As if just to prove me wrong, a herd of fleeting memories of the last year or so flashed before my eyes, like a million word essay coupled to make me give up on this my chosen crusade of mine. But I couldn't go back now, not after all this, even if I would miss them all; even Sally, and especially Sonic, my lovable blue hero. If I did…if I did go back now I'd never be able to face them and especially him ever again. _

"_I just can't!" I exclaimed to the desert-like wasteland around me, before I did the only thing I could, ironically what he was best known for doing, I ran. And I was never gonna look back._

_I don't know for how long but ran I did, all the while firmly positioning my arms in front of my face in order to shield some of the blinding sunlight overhead. _

_As I struggled to run in my blasted red 'girly' heeled shoes, I suddenly felt the world slip away as I tripped suddenly, and like a prat I fell face first into the dusty and lifeless earth of the Wastelands. I lay there for a few moments, unbothered to get up straight away, and it was then that I wondered if I was making a big mistake…_

_Just where will I go to now, when there is nothing left for me in the world?_

_How would I survive…?_

_I struggled to my knees, gasping short breathes in exhaustion as I did so. Just then my eye caught a glimpse of the horizon, as hazy as a mirage but nevertheless real, and by golly it was nothing I ever expected to see. Right ahead of me was what I could only describe as a large metropolis city, and since the fabled Mobotropolis was all but gone [now Robotropolis]… I came to the unnerving conclusion that it must be home to the last great settlement of Overlanders, or to use the proper term humans. _

_Fear strike me right there, like a jab to the very bone. And then I wondered why, as in my short life I immediately recalled that Robotnik was the only human that I'd ever met and come across. All the others had experience in combat or faced losses in the Great War but I didn't, my family never did. The only price that we'd had left to pay came off during Robotnik's coup, and only I lived through that. _

_All I'd ever heard of the human population was bad, all the ghostly 'campfire' stories one could name under the moon about them was all I had to base upon my experience of the foreign species. I sighed, the emotional and physical exhaustion [presumably] widely apparent through my face, and then I thought that perhaps now was the time to see for myself what they were like, how they live and carry on; it's not like any of them went over to Robotnik's side so they can't be that different to us, or bad. _

_I took some time to inspect the towering metropolis; it was like many a royal citadel except they were very tall instead of wide and were all randomly bunched up together. They also looked very strong and firm structures, built up not unlike a series of dominoes that could be timbered easily. Like their own personal strongholds one might say…_

_Well no point in just gawking at it girl, I scolded herself. It was time to make a move and this way seem all the more fine to me now. _

_And as I strolled into the city, albeit with still some caution, I couldn't quite__shake the anticipation drumming in my stomach. Some would call it fear and nerves but to me, it was like the drumming of new beginnings. And I was gonna make sure I enjoyed every drop of it, like every girl should!_

_END FLASHBACK_

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**STATION SQUARE / SHOPPING DISTRICT / 9.25 AM**

[_NARRATOR'S POV_]

It was a delightfully mild weathered day within the human metropolis and the busy, bustling escapades of the shopping district's go- lucky shoppers were all flustered and racing around, like stealthy panthers marking their prey. The competition over the latest designs was unexpectedly a roaring display and a dangerous sport, with many people losing out just due to the noxious tension in the air. It was a typical female majority shopping day that was for sure.

One unfortunate victim was a young, pink hedgehog female whom was dressed up in a neat pretty red dress, and she was definitely one of a kind, especially when it came to what she claimed were 'hers'…

For you see, a large cluster of shopping divas had assembled around what the newest magazines were claiming was the next 'all that' and 'in' style product.

It was not to the fewer distant male customers' surprise that it was over a small little bag; with only new shoes being anywhere near the status of a 'new bag' in female world. Or so it seems to most males anyway.

Miss Amy Rose was right in the thick of it and despite being a petite small girl of only thirteen years old; she could definitely hold her own, whether it be in a simple argument or in full-on anger – because she had quite a temper to those unlucky to see it. The dozy 'sweet' lady in simple blue housewife-like clothes and tied-back auburn hair certainly felt the hedgehog girl's wraith as she swooped for her prize, swatting the unprepared aforementioned soul into a clothes rack nearby.

In girl world, war was officially on. And for all guys that meant one thing: RUN!

The roars of these seemly possessed women could only be described as pure primal instincts, all bets were naturally off and Amy had to admit she was having a pressing time trying to break through the ranks.

"OWW!" she screamed as an aerial handbag rebounded harshly off her head cranium.

From then on the aerial assaults came thick and fast, but Amy being small was far more agile than the taller and otherwise tangled-up teenage girls and other women literally clawing their way to the front of the pack, so she leaped into the air.

_Oh oh… Silver Gucci bag at ten o clock!_

She twirled and like a dancer on ice she gracefully avoided the would be bag of doom, one of the teen wannabes behind and beneath her however was not so lucky, as it slammed right into her blonde-mop covered face. From that point on, though, the teen princess quickly recovered and picked up the bag and made haste to leave, she'd obviously lost the lust and desire for the still in warpath front bag ahead and decided to leave with her freebie prize whilst she still could. I guess you say she didn't lose as much as gained something at all!

As for our young teenage 'heroine' she was currently head bouncing to and fro from one mad woman to the next with only her two hands, a manoeuvre that she'd developed and worked on from remembering what she had observed in watching Sonic in play and action back then. _Wahoo! This is actually kind of fun! I bet Sonic and the others would be surprised if they could see me now, the 'agile air maiden'. _She thought as she arched her body forward and propelled herself to the front of the mad rush.

She could see it clearly now, the current 'owner' or to be precise 'holder of the bag' was a large frumpy woman with bad brown & greyish hair, the kind that either hadn't been washed or was just plain dull and messy. The kind that Amy and definitely the surrounding prowling herd of 'cat women' would never let grace bestow her with this new style gem of a bag. But like I mentioned she was a big brawly woman and she was certainly towering and glaring at the mouse like stampede below her.

It sent a shiver through Amy's bones at the madness of it all, she'd actually rather face a pack of Badnik's or Swatbots any day of the week!

The prized bag itself was some small white and silver lined bag that local celebs had been snapped with in such things like Heat and Gloss, and the kind that would make you the absolute idol of all your mates and a great kick up the ass to any rivals you had. Other than that it was just another handbag, and one that for many was probably one too many, _I mean just how many handbags does a girl need anyway_, Amy thought. Not that it mattered right now though as she was going in, ready or not!

Amy had bounced off the last of the scrapping females below and grabbed onto one of the surrounding illuminated, white advertising pillars surrounding what she could only deem 'ground zero'. And the towering giant was now swatting away those who dared challenge her wraith and floor space, the bag still clutched high above her head and out of anyone's reach.

_Oh boy… this is gonna fun… not,_ the rosy hedgehog thought with dismay.

Alas, she soaked up all the courage she could muster and proceeded with her 'non-planned' assault, which consisted of lunging herself straight into the outer hide of the giantess.

A small thumping sound was next to be heard, needless to say the straight on approach had been less than fruitful for Miss Amy Rose as she lay dazed atop the now empty item counter. _Ugh. Well that went well… at least I'm not with the preying vultures down there I suppose. Now if only I could swipe that bag and get the hell outta here in one piece!_ Amy thought, cursing herself for letting her girly desires take over the single important task she'd set for the day.

_Oh crap! Why didn't I just stick to the plan; get Zack a present for his 10__th__ birthday and relax the rest of this would-have-been glorious day away with him and the others back home?_

She sighed and quickly regained her composure, she'd swipe the bag, run full throttle outta the store and hide in the numerous dark back alleyways until all of the preying women shoppers had stopped hounding her, then she'd go get Zack his present.

_No. No. NO!_ She thought with a shake of her head, Zack's present is top priority!

_I don't even know why I wanted the bag so much anyway, it is just another bag. And that design is like so old and clichéd anyway_, she thought with a smiling smirk.

And with her mind newly set she pulled out her trusty Piko Warrior Hammer and bopped down hard on the item showcase display and soared over the surrounding mob and pegged it to the nearest door. Unfortunately, she was a good swing with the hammer more than she thought as the item showcase she'd been mere seconds before had shattered and collapsed, taking the frumpy giantess bag holder with it. The swarming masses were on her before you could blink, and all was lost to vision as a large cluster formed yet again at the epicentre of it all, and thus it started anew.

The sight of pure girl wraith induced by clothes brought a chuckle of laughter to Amy's face, but only faced a sigh of relief to be out of it for the time being as she re-pocketed her hammer away and exited the store.

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_FLASHBACK_

_The grey metropolis, that's what I thought this all was just a little while ago. Heck from the outside it was hard to tell if any life at all roamed yet alone lived here!_

_But alas, fortunately for me, there were people here; many people of different shapes and sizes, looks and attitude. They didn't appear to be any wholly different from us Mobian butch, they talked, they walked, they ran, they screamed, they breathed, they laughed and cried; they ate, drank and slept and felt. No, we're very much one in the same spite one difference, our appearance and… probably a natural affinity for chaos energy and the like. Okay that was two, but still that isn't very much if you look at it clearly, with a polished mirror of a mind without prejudice._

_As I sat by myself in the café corner, and with a mug of warm soothing tea tucked into my hands, I continued to reminisce on my initial feelings of Station Square._

_It was my first day here and I'd already been confronted with many stares, mainly from the adult persons going about their daily business; still it was enough to send a small chill up my bones. I'd never been so noticed in all my young life, not like this certainly anyway. It was an unnerving and new sensation but I decided to bear with it._

_I'd extended my hand to a lone passer-by; he was a young male with dirty blonde hair and was probably in he early to mid twenties, and told him in a rushed mumble my name and whether he knew of anywhere good and cheap that I could stay for awhile._

_He'd looked up at me and immediately his face contorted with disgust and then with venom dripping in his every word and his dark hazel eyes frantically scanning me, he told me to 'stay the hell away from him', and slapped my hand away, fleeing quickly [pathetically] into the busy herd of people crossing the road._

_I'd stood there for awhile, my mouth wide open and staring out into the blurred horizon, not really thinking at all. I was in total shock. The look he'd given me, as though I was just the filthy mud that lied beneath his trainers had just hurt, oh so much. My entire body felt numb, for those words and look of malice caused my heart to pain. _

_How could anyone be so cruel and ignorant?!_

_And with nothing else to dwell on, that was the driving thought that plagued me thereafter. As much as it pained to think about, I concluded after wandering aimlessly around another greyish coloured stack of flats that I had to rise above it all, otherwise I'd never be able to start anew here or anywhere. No, I'd find someone, and they'd tell me what I wanted to know. Not all humans are like that… they're not…_

_I ended up asking more people for any kind of hotel that I could relax and settle in, but no good unfortunately came out of their kind helpfulness, as they were all full or otherwise booked up. The looks that some clerks gave me though suggested that they didn't want any attention from one of 'my kind' in their hotel, so perhaps it was all for the best._

_It still didn't solve the problem of where I'd live, let alone what I'd do for a job to earn my way though. This was gonna be harder than I thought it would be._

_It was a shame I thought, my head slumped down as though I'd plunge face first into the steady cup of warm tea I still held at any given second; as despite all the racial and rude attitudes I'd encountered so far, I actually was starting to rather like the city and the few kind people that I'd had briefly encountered. Yes, I wanted to stay here, at least for awhile, who knows it could be a bit of an adventure of my own making!_

_My face smiled at that thought as I took another sip; from here on in I'll take control of my own life and make it worthwhile, whatever that entailed. _

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_Time pasted, and I continued with my personal musings, finishing my cup of tea before staring out into the dark streets outside. Just wondering… _

_What seemed only seconds later, I thought I'd heard something akin to coughing, but instead put it down to my own wild imagination when I noticed no one about? So I continued my random observations with my hands lazily cupping my head._

_Moments later the coughing returned, more loudly than before and then…_

"_AHEM!" shouted a gentle but firm voice, which startled me, and then I quickly realised that that the voice had been coming from behind, so I then twisted round to see who was bothering me._

"_I'm sorry for disturbing you like that Miss but it's almost closing time, and besides you looked rather away with the fairies for awhile there… Is everything ok?" _

_I looked up timidly and saw that it was a female, probably in her early twenties and one with slightly dull green eyes. Far and above her most striking feature was the flaming red hair, which was mostly tied up into a bun, but which radiated much beauty all the same. _

_The kind and warm gesture of words left me rather at a loss for words [something that I didn't think was me], with the only word I could muster on the tip of my tongue being 'Oh… yes. I'm sorry!' And in an unplanned rush, I leapt out of my seat, knocking the empty tea mug with my right arm as I went. _

_SMASH! _

_The white mug went cascading off to meet the white and red, triangular-tiled café floor, and smashed into a dozen pieces with minimal tea excess oozing across the floor._

"_Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry! I'm such a ditz!" I screamed profusely, shaking my head frantically as my eyes widened. They [and my mood] were far from the solemn ones that they were only moments before, and I was down on the ground sooner than one could possibly say 'Look there's Sonic!' and trying to clear up my mess._

"_Hey, let me help you," said the serene, gentle voice of the red head as she too knelled down onto the floor in front of me._

"_Oh… yea sure. Thank you," I replied kindly, a genuine smile on her face. _

_And minutes later the two of us had finished cleaning up the tea mug remains, which was especially helped by the fact that I'd drunken it all beforehand. _

_It was during this time that I snooped a closer look at the new arrival, her eyes were much brighter close up I noticed and sparkled with warm radiance in their wake. Before I'd only token note of her face, but now I also saw the rest of her; the female in question was undoubtedly an employee here at the café of some kind as she wearing a similar yet smarter uniform, which was a shiny smooth and white kitchen apron with thin pink vertical lines over a lilac t-shirt. She also had on a slightly dull blue coloured pair of jeans and a pair of flat worn black shoes on. _

_To me she looked to be no older than 25 at the very least and still had a youthful appearance, and yet she was dressed differently compared to the other waiters and waitresses that had come to and fro for the last few hours. She definitely looked mature enough. Hmm, perhaps she is the manager, I wondered._

_After we'd cleared up, we sat down at the table I'd been occupying for the last few hours and we started talking. Moreso her to me at first, though._

"_Thank you for helping me clear up my mess… Miss?" I began with a slight blushing on her face._

"_I'm Amber Worthington. But you can just call me Amber," she said simply as she gestured out her hand in traditional invitation, which I returned happily. "And what might your name be, you sweet girl?" she continued, the last two words being said with genuine kindness and not at all with any hint of malice. _

"_I'm Amy Rose. It's nice to meet you Amber," I said politely. _

"_It's nice to meet you too Amy." Amber replied gracefully with a smile._

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_An awkward silence followed but was soon broken._

"_So Amy, what brings one such as yourself to Station Square? I haven't seen many Mobians around as of late." Amber said, taking particular care to choose her words from the mild strained expression she'd briefly had. Being her newest [and from the looks of things] last guest, she obviously didn't want to make me uncomfortable as much as she was genuinely curious._

"_Hmm, well I just came here to start anew, and see something new, meet new people and stuff. I'd… rather not talk about the why and no hows. Sorry Amber," I said simply but with some traces of sadness unwillingly evident in my voice as I bit down on my upper lip. _

"_Oh no, no! That is quite alright, Amy that was rude and intrusive of me. I apologize. I really was just curious to see another Mobian as I've seen so few these days, and I saw you looking outside earlier rather blankly so I… was a little worried." Amber said with a heightened voice, her face frantic and showing obvious signs of embarrassment as she didn't stop for any breaks in her words._

"_Ah I see… Wow. And there's no need for an apology, thank you for your concern," I replied with a beaming smile. "… So are Mobian folk really that rare around this city then Amber?" my rosy self asked in all seriousness, looking at Amber._

_With her eyes slightly downcast and the greenness becoming dull yet again, the young woman replied. "Yes I'm afraid so…It's quite a shame as I've never been one to shun them and treat them as though they were vermin, not like some people do here in the city. It's just vile! My younger sister and brother and I do not see anything different at all and we quite like it whenever we see some around, to us they are just more new people to meet and get to know, and more potential friends in the making!"_

_And as the young woman finished speaking her heart, I made a return gesture of thanks and not one made up of words. She shook and squeezed my hand, with a warm and radiant smile on her face that just screamed 'thank you'. No words were said for abit but the message was crystal clear, we'd both made a new friend this night._

"_So do you work here then Amber?" I enquired, breaking the soothing silence._

"_Work here? Why I'm the manager of this café! Didn't you see the picture up behind the cash desk as you came in?" the red haired woman said with slight amusement, pointing up towards the said glass framed picture; which was a group photo of all her employees, with her up front with her arms around a little boy and girl smiling joyfully._

"_Oh no, I didn't. Sorry Amber... I guess I was too busy thinking about… stuff," replied a quieter and stricken me, my mind swaying back and forth it seemed._

_But I pulled myself from those thoughts and looked at the photo in question; a warm feeling of belonging was evident throughout. I could also feel Amber's eye on me as I did so, perhaps, I wondered, my eyes weren't so glazed over to my inner sadness after all. And my regrets. _

_And Amber's intuition wasn't that far off the beaten track either as right now I was feeling overwhelmingly mixed feelings course through me. Staring at the photo had brought on home, the realisations and memories, of Knothole and the Freedom Fighters. The fact that I [now] was no longer a part of them, Amber's group photo could easily be a picture of them all, happy and content, without me to disrupt them all…_

_No more hugging Sonic, teasing him, nor talking to him. It was all gone, for I had run away and left them all. I had no such family to speak of now, and it pained at my heart, but through sheer will I forced myself no to spill anymore tears. Not with Amber here who's done so much for me in this fleeting space of time already. I couldn't mess this up now._

"_Amy, are you ok?" the young woman asked, he expression of mild concern over my newfound silence and glistening eyes, the kind that just wanted to burst like a dam._

"_Oh I'm fine! I was just looking at your group photo, you all look so happy! Especially you with the little girl and boy, that's your sister and brother upfront with you right?" I said in a rush, my voice shaking as I tried to remain strong and focused (not that it helped a dime, since I wasn't used to keeping so much inside, for I was usually so upfront, lively and open about my thoughts and feelings]. I just wasn't used to this at all._

_Amber opened her mouth to protest and ask what was really bothering me but stopped herself shortly before answering after all. "Yes, it was a really nice photo, it came out so well. And yes, that's my kid sister Lisa up front and the little boy is our little brother, adopted, by the name of Zack," she spoke with a vibrant smile, with pride in her voice as she spoke of her little family and it was obvious that they reigned top in her heart of hearts, and were her worldly treasures._

_I was glad, and told Amber that she was very lucky, Lisa and Zack too; to have such a close knitted family, no matter how small. I guess I also secretly wished that I had such a family to return to [or find], but slammed the door on that thought, envy here wasn't going to help anything more than it would hinder things, the issues of my own mind and heart and in moving on._

_

* * *

  
_

_The dark night had settled in full now, with the café lights becoming large beacons of light in the darkness, hanging centrally in-between the wooden fans atop the ceiling. And despite the fact that Amber hadn't managed to yet close up and put the 'CLOSE' sign on the door, it was still only her and I, alone in the café. _

"_So… Amy where are you staying right now, in the city?" the red haired woman asked after awhile, trying her best to steer the conversation away from her and more to myself, to learn more about her new friend here. I didn't think anymore of it, so I obliged. _

"_Hmm well… I only arrived in the city this afternoon and I've tried asking in the hotels and that but nothing…" I said deflated, my voice more embarrassed about that fact than defeated sadness._

"_I see… I'm sorry to hear that Amy," Amber replied in jest, her arms fidgeting slightly and then she suddenly leapt up onto her feet and started pacing abit, the supporting hands to her head showing obvious signs to deep thought._

_It was an action that startled me slightly, since she'd come across as bubbly and kind so far, and now she was silent and introverted. Had I done something? Said something? _

_I didn't need to wait long, thankfully, as the young manager quickly sat back down, grabbing our hands together. Her glistening green eyes were locked and focused on my own, it was a bit uncomfortable I must admit at first, but all that was blown to the winds once she'd spoken her mind._

"_Well Amy, I know its alil sudden, since we've just met and all, but if you let me, I think I can solve all your problems…" Amber said, with a smile and her words filled with warmth and genuineness. _

_To say I was shell-shocked was an understatement; for I was at a utter lost for words [again!], and I could feel my eyes bursting to come out from how wide with surprise and amazement they currently were._

_I said no more. I could say no more, as my face said it all._

_Amber then took that as her cue to continue on, and explain what she had in mind, all the while her eyes glistened like emeralds, the smile never leaving her face. To us, the rest of the world was gone for a time as we continued talking well into the night before setting Amber's plan into action._

_END FLASHBACK _

_

* * *

  
_

**Station Square / Shopping District / 9.57 AM**

[_NARRATOR'S POV_]

Since the 'shopping wars' earlier on, Amy had with haste gone and entered a more quieter and relaxed part of the district, namely the children's section. She'd come here for two reasons; one was to get away from the screaming banshees of earlier and two, and most importantly of all was to get Zack a present for his upcoming 10th birthday.

Although, as she slowly stepped into the 'boys' section of the said children's store she couldn't help by think she'd landed on another planet. With all the Action Man's, Spiderman, X-Men, Lord of the Rings and all said stuff, she couldn't begin to think of what best to get him. _I mean what the hell would, I, a girl know what to get?_

She thought back upon how she'd met them all, after meeting and befriending Amber in her own café, it had been over a year since then and all was well.

* * *

_FLASHBACK_

_Ah, home sweet home…_

_Upon opening slowly one eye and taking a glance at her blue spherical desk alarm clock, I immediately became aware of the calmness that passed over me, as well as the hint of lavender in the air. It was one of Amber's many cleaning methods, for which I'd thoroughly enjoyed embracing. It was like home… for I was at ease. Always. _

_After wiping away the excess tiredness from my grassy-tinted eyes, and with my vision more focused, I turned my attention to the room around me, as I had many times before. _

_It was a medium-sized room, big enough for at least two people and could've easily become a spare room for guests; I, however had been a guest to the Worthington family for little over a year now and it was this that filled my mind as I fought against [and out] the inevitable warm cocoon that was my bed. It took a few minutes, since I felt like being lazy today, but eventually I pulled myself out and sat up._

_Pulling back the bed covers revealed the primrose petals patterns that were sprawled across its creamy white tone, before I continued the art of fluffing my pillows [something my parents had taught me long ago], the likes of which were a more vivid pink and had no such pattern. After that, I eventually gave in and carefully lay back on my bed, gazing up at the ceiling above._

_The ceiling fan was a creamy pine-built mechanism, just plain and simple really, but its core light bulb served to illuminate the otherwise constricted room. The wallpaper was of a light maroon red tone, which served to contrast the creamy colours of the room with the pink frills of my snugly bed-sit._

_Adoring my bed side were photos of the Freedom Fighters and I together. Ah, I remember this one well, I thought, picking up the particular photo. It was a group shot of us all on the rare, but enjoyable picnics we used to take out in the Great Forest when things were quiet… _

_I was, naturally, hugging Sonic like crazy (much to his obvious discomfort and strained smile) with Sally trying her best to look 'indifferent' to it all, whilst Antoine was posing like the soldier boy he was always trying to be and Bunnie posed with the peace sign, her sole normal arm wrapped around nearly everyone. Finally, Tails was waving with his eyes dead set on the placed timer camera._

_Those were the good times I warmly thought, as I carefully put the photo back amongst the others in the assorted plastic album I'd created since my departure. It was covered in little artistic doodles and hearts and whilst it lacked obvious artistic talent so to say, it was easy enough to see that my imagination and creativity could be great with the right tutoring [which would make me better artistically]. It wasn't something that dear to my heart, though..._

_In fact, I stifled a laugh at that thought. Me, an artist? I scoffed at the very thought, instead turning my attention to the clippings and pictures decorating a single wall._

_It was a collection I'd pretty much started a year previous (much to the amusement of Amber and Lisa, with a lesser, more turned off reaction from Zack], which consisted of all my Sonic pictures, whether I was in them or not. And almost outdoing that Sonic memorabilia was a stack worth of newspaper clippings pinned up alongside, which detailed many of the successes that the Freedom Fighters had achieved in the last year or so. _

_It served as a reminder of the good old times, and I regularly took time to see how they were faring (without her, I'd instinctively interject) through the scarce newspapers clippings I could badger off the local news geeks downtown. _

_It was surprising actually, to discover quite early on in my city venture that Sonic had many a fan here too, ranging from the sickly sweet (and pathetic, I scowl fully thought] fan girls to the hero wannabe, kickass action loving boys. _

_It kept the memory of him and others alive at the very least, and warmed my heart to think that even here, that they all had support. It was an amazing feat, and one I'm sure would surprise them all, if they ever came to the city. _

_That surely deserved a mental slap. _

_I mean, why the hell would they ever come here? Get a hold of yourself girl… that was then and this is now. This is my start, my new beginnings._

_

* * *

  
_

_And with that thought, I slowly swayed and prodded across the beige carpet and across to the clothes dresser that towered slightly over my bed, making sure to look at myself in the mirror and wash my face out in the fitted sink. Today I opted simply for soap and water, not feeling the great need for anything more potent. It wasn't like I was going out on a date or going out somewhere special with the family (as she'd come to know the Worthington's as)._

_Kneeling down, I then set about choosing my outfit for the day, as I went through the four sets of drawers that I had._

"_Hmm, what should I wear today?" I wondered out loud to no one in particular, as I sought my way through my bursting closet, many of which I selfishly never wore that often, truth be told. _

_In the end, after what seemed like an eternity, but in reality was really only about five or eight minutes; I found my matching combo for the day. I'd decided that pink really wasn't in my mood for today, and that blue wasn't really her match anymore (but was more suited to another), so I'd just decided to go classic style, dressing myself up in my red dress, red and white boots, which was finished off with a red headband through my quill hair._

_Once I was as preened as one could be without a shower, I marched over to the creamy textured curtains that fluttered like leaves in the wind in the nook space between my bed and the clear-paned windows, and opened them up._

_The caressing air down my face and neck came swiftly after, and I silently thanked the gods for bestowing such a pleasant calamity on this day. It was then I noticed that the lavender smell was now mixed with what appeared to be the fragrance of the morning dew, with a hint of flowers of some kind._

"_Ah…" I sighed with glee, as I took in the new smells and gentle breezes of the day ahead. It looks like Amber has been out planting some more flowerbeds and hanging baskets again, was the first thought that came to mind, especially since her handiwork was a common occurrence to me now, even just through the sailing smells on the river of air._

_Looking out of the open window brought to attention clear blue skies, which was populated with dotty white clouds that looked like cuddly fluff. And I was just in time to see a flock of migrating grey birds flee across the sky, tweeting away and onwards to their destination. _

_In the city you see the real sights were scattered about and hidden like gems, akin to the a needle in a haystack, with mostly only the towering grey towers of office and business buildings, and some multiple storey flats, being the only notable sight on the skyline, at least from this high up at the very least._

_The Worthington's and I, their long time guest, and unofficial family member, lived on the sixth floor of a series of multiple flats, that were all piled up on top of one another like slabs and bricks, cemented together. It was the most that they could handle having, even with Amber's running of the popular café in downtown Station Square, but they didn't seem to mind much, being more grateful to even have a place in which to live and call their own, if just for the time being._

_When I'd moved in I was quite content and happy to have become a lingering sofa resident, so as to not change the household dynamics here just for my sake. Amber, however, hadn't given me much choice in the matter, showing a surprising stubbornness after her aura of gentleness and kindness that she'd displayed back at the café on that night. So in the end, I'd begrudgingly moved the few belongings I had [and myself] into the [then] spare room._

_And with this have been a midnight procedure, I hadn't met the extended family, Lisa and Zack, till the well-rested morning to come. I surprised myself by falling into a quick and content sleep in my new surroundings almost from the first touch of bed softness. I think I'd had needed the rest to be honest!_

_A calling from down the hall and beyond my little bedsit, pricked my ears, bring me out of the daydreaming remising and back to the present. It was Amber's usual day calling to let everyone know that breakfast was ready, and with the warm feeling that being part of them entailed, I danced in steps across the room and to the white oak made door. Taking one last glance back at my room [it still felt funny to acknowledge that truthfully] to make sure nothing was amiss; I grasped the golden brass handle and soared through the open door._

_

* * *

  
_

_Stepping into the dimly lit hall, I could already smell the air fresher smells that Amber had installed months back in order to disguise the ghastly dusty and strong paint smells that the small corridors emitted; for beneath the surface bore the typical look and feel of a derelict building, but then it was one in a series of stacked flats, so simple and basic was to be expected I'd figured.._

_Again, like most trivial things, it didn't bother Amber and the rest though, nor me even all that much; I wasn't expecting royalty, nor wanted it. Through their efforts they had made the most of what they had, and had made it a pleasant and comfortable place to live. Down the long corridor I pasted three other doors (one for each of the Worthington's), and moments later I then emerged through the end archway and into the main living area of the flat._

_As any living room or space should be, it was bigger than the rest of the cosy flat. The carpet area was beige and hover rough, with one medium sized black leather sofa in front of a simple working TV. And in front of the TV was a small wooden tea table in front of it which had black animal engravings on its face. And on the walls there hanged various old family photos of Amber and Lisa with their parents, of who died mysteriously years back when Amber was only 14, and Lisa even younger. _

_It was something Amber never much talked about or wanted to, for whenever she was reminded or asked of it she would become gravely silent and her eyes would glisten with tears that she willed never to come, and it was something I'd out of sheer polite respect had stopped asking about entirety._

_As for Zack he'd been adopted by the two sisters a year after they'd had to bury their parents, after they'd found him wandering the streets downtown, alone and confused. Taking him into their care, the pair had consulted with the local hospital in order to find out what had happened to his parents, with all they to go on being the only thing he remembered, his first name. Unsurprisingly with information like that, their labours had proved fruitless, and so they'd adopted him wholly into their already declined family, and he became something of the little brother they'd never have._

_Beyond this typical living room were two sliding panes of thick glass that served as the patio, or in this case the balcony doors to the outside space. The balcony was dominantly white and made out of strong reinforced materials, with numerous bedded hanging above the entrance, as well as along its edge. They were Amber's specialty (naturally) although Lisa helped out, it wasn't really much to Zack's interest though… but he did help from time to time. There were various blooms such as Petunia's, Lilies, Geraniums, Foxgloves, Bluebells and Roses [by yours truly], and they all contributed much to the more natural smell and feel to the otherwise plain and constricted flat._

_The living area was split into two, with the last remaining half being the kitchen and dining area. And where the beige roughed carpet ended was where the marble kitchen floor began, which consisted of white tiles with black triangles in-between the lines. The worktop was of a dark greyish specked design, simple, with a wooden container holding all the need be kitchen tools, as well as the usual sink, black coloured oven, stove and usual kitchen essentials all fitted in._

_Looking around, I located the source of Amber's voice; she was thoroughly whipping up some delicious homemade pancakes, with side orders of juicy fruit yoghurt and fruit, along with chocolate shakes to go with it. What a [mostly] healthy rush of food! I thought with a smile as I crossed the living room threshold into the kitchen._

"_Good morning, Amber," I said with just a hint of tiredness left remaining, but with my charming smile and clear eyes intact. "And thanks for the morning wake up call, I might never have gotten up today otherwise," I joked, all the while going googly eyed at the laid out breakfast, much to Amber's amusement. _

"_Haha, good morning yourself sleepy head," she chuckled, as she finished the remaining portion to make a total of four. "Someone needed to wake you up Amy, I mean just because you have the benefit of not being needed at work today doesn't give you the right to sleep away the day," Amber continued on, her eyes alight as she continued poking fun at my expense. "We have to make the most of the time we have, wouldn't you agree?" she finished, her eyes closed and bearing a triumphant smile._

_I knew she meant well and everything, but it was still a little unnerving just how well she could see through people and tell things as they were. I've never been able to do that… I mused regrettably to myself, admiring that uncanny foresight greatly. Still, I loved her, for she was the older sister I'd never had (or ever would), and by extension Lisa and Zack too. _

_Losing myself for a few seconds, I took a moment or two to recollect my thoughts before replying._

"_Yeah I know. I shouldn't have overslept like that. I don't want to waste today either, so I thought that I'd go out and get Zack a present for his birthday, seeing as I'm not in today. What do ya think?" I said with more upbeat, my eyes seeking out Amber's nod or voice of approval._

_I didn't have to wait long as she replied back with an ecstatic grin on her face as drew me close to her with a crashing motion. "Oh yes! That would be a great idea Amy. You may as well, it's a nice day outside and after the fiasco of last night's work, I'm sure you could do with it. Even if I as manager cannot," she said with a rush, the last part with great resolve as she released me from her strong hold and slumped backwards, resting on the worktop behind her._

"_Yeah… thanks Amber," was my simple, but reassured reply, at much a loss to further say anything more than what she'd said. Although one burning question did ache in my head…_

"_Umm, Amber?" I spoke with acute dumbness, my face surely giving away my confusion in an instant. Amber perked up and looked at me then, waiting on me to continue. No pressure at all…_

"_You've known Zack longer than I have… Umm, what I mean is… what do you think I should…?"_

"_Get for him?" Amber finished for me, a small laugh escaping her lips._

"_Uh huh, I mean I am a girl and he's not so… yeah, its abit tricky!" I concluded awkwardly, my body of its own accord deciding to limply fall onto one of the dining seats, where I drew my hands into my lap, the many gift disaster thoughts for one certain blue hedgehog now re-emerging and swimming around in my mind. _

"_Boys are difficult indeed, but I'm sure that whatever you got him would be fine Amy. You're a good judge of character and a good person Amy," was her honest breakdown, as she finally got on with serving up the breakfast dishes on the wooden pine dining table that divided the living and kitchen areas. _

_I was about to vocally recount my initial thoughts in detail when some hurried footsteps from the landing echoed into the living space, distracting me for a moment [which was all that was needed here really]. Moments later, __the door opened with a great swing and in came Lisa._

_

* * *

  
_

_Unlike her long red haired and creamy white elder sister, Lisa had bronzed toned skin (from her mother's side) and with cropped short black hair that lay in a circular arc from the front to the back of her head. Whilst she was young she was sensible and could carry herself just as well (if not better I thought at times) than her older sister. She was also fun and loved to mix with her peers, she always liked a laugh but knew when the time to be studious and hard working came and did it without much of a groan at all. She looked up to Amber strongly, that much was clear._

"_Good morning, you rang?" she spoke to her older sibling, her eyes not noticing the laid out food and drinks until after she'd spoken. "Oh my I almost forgot! Breakfast! Thanks sis!" she said with excitement as she rushed to sat on down and get started. _

"_Good morning to you too, sis. Did you sleep well?" asked Amber in her kind motherly tone as Lisa began to scoop up some of her cold, juicy and freshly made yoghurt._

"_Umm... Yeah. I did sis," Lisa mumbled incoherently, her mouth already full with the abundance of strawberries, bananas and oranges, amongst others within the yoghurt. _

_The childish whims of her younger sister when it came to food, and me too admittedly at times, usually always brought a smile to Amber's face. I wondered whether she reminisced back on the old days, the times when their parents were here, alive and well, and the way they always had breakfast around the table together… She probably learned all her cooking from her mother after all, something I'd never got round to doing back then, in Mercia._

_She'd 'space out' for a few minutes or so, but soon turned back to us and or the work at hand. She probably didn't think I noticed but I did, as did Lisa and Zack too, but being the strong person she came off as wanting to be, Amber never diverged on these episodes._

_Still they were strongly bound, a close-knit family, so the painful past would mend in time [we all hoped]. _

"_Hey Lisa, where's Zack…?" I asked after a while, tired of the silence, looking up from the fruited pancakes Amber had made and was eating. I didn't have long to wait, as then again, the door opened again with a creak and new footsteps were heard._

_

* * *

  
_

"_Amber? You called me?" a voice asked, belonging to the new footsteps. The voice was clear but kinda quiet despite his shouting efforts; it belonged to a young boy._

_As the young Zack stepped into the room, it was easy to tell that he was ironically feebler than her slightly older sis in Lisa (despite a rare medical condition which kept her body frail), but still carried an air of solitude and knowledge with him. One could tell that he was one to keep to himself and concentrate more on the essence and issues with knowledge, after learning and gaining it._

_Stereotypical wise you could deduce this because of his neatly cleaned, dark green specs he was currently wearing, presumably to read the giant book [of who knows what] tucked up under his arm. He carried the certain 'nerd' and 'loner' image, but had decent black spiky shoulder length hair that dangled down like half dreadlocks and a fitted white shirt and grey dirty jean short pants, and so he was slightly better than societies typical 'norm' of the nerd._

_His two years spent with the Worthington's were all remembered, the rest being a blur. He couldn't remember his own parents' names, where they'd lived or anything and he was seven frickin' years old back then too! Every time he'd tried peel back the fuzzy dreams, possible flashbacks, he'd had now and again had also come to nothing to date. It was disheartening to witness, for it'd left him no choice really but to keep to himself, for too many friends would likely drew attention to this anomaly._

_Zack looked over us all, acknowledging the breakfast and then turned to Amber as he picked up his food and put it on a portable tray. "Thanks for the breakfast Amber; I'll just take some to my room if that's alright?" he said, always in his serious tone, like the wise boy he was._

_Amber sighed, it was just like Zack to refuse company now and then, she didn't like it but she didn't want to press the issue either. He'd adapt and mingle when he's ready to she always said in private to me and Lisa, to console her motherly feelings and thoughts. _

"_Oh okay, Zack.," she sighed. "But be sure not to make too much of a mess and to bring your dirty litter down!" she'd almost screamed at him as he'd hurried quickly out of the room, the sound of a door creaking and then slamming shut confirmed that'd he'd gone back to his room once again._

"_He's probably gone off to speak that Ron character again, his boyfriend… or was it mate?" Lisa had teased greatly as soon as he'd left the room. _

_True be told it was no secret that Zack was less than sociable than others his age or Lisa herself, but whereas Amber could forgo Ron's comical jokes and antics, Lisa could not. She practically spat venom at the red head prankster whenever they had the luxury to meet, which was kinda normal I thought as I watched Lisa pout abit about 'that ghastly Ronald', for a youngster to have someone to moan about or just find someone annoyingly unbearable. I too, had gone through that one. _

_She had a point really, as Ron was a bit of a prat, but a lovable one all the same, and being around Zack's age and one of the only close friends he had, it was no surprise that Amber had not interfered and gladly welcomed his hand of friendship to Zack._

"_I bet they're on the phone again…" whined Lisa again, who was twirling her spoon around in her yoghurt with not much interest._

"_If it bothers you that much sis, why don't you go and play with own friends too, hmm?" Amber responded back with haste, the anger not yet greatly apparent in her voice, just mild annoyance at Lisa's pre-teen hormonal spats as she stopped her tidying up of the kitchen area, not having even touched her breakfast portion yet._

"_Oh, I am going to a friends, I'm just gonna finish this delightful breakfast of yours sis and I'll be right out of his way, and the both of you's, okie?" Lisa replied passively, taking her time and the words simply danced off her tongue. It was obvious that despite how mature she could for her age, the opposite was also true._

"_That's good to hear, as me and Amy both won't be here, perhaps you could take Zack with you?" she said simply in return._

"_What? NO!" she shouted; her eyes wide and her mouth quivering in typical teenage sulkiness, like when one didn't get their way. Quite simply it was melodrama._

"_Why do I have to babysit the little squirt? I know he's my lil brother and all but he can take care of himself… It's not like he leaves the house much anyway. Don't I deserve a life of my own, I mean just because he can be slightly uncool and brain-dead at…" she roared to everyone in the vicinity, before Amber angrily cut her off._

"_BECAUSE I SAID SO, AND DO NOT INSULT YOUR LITTLE BROTHER LIKE THAT, IF HE WAS HERE RIGHT NOW I'D MAKE YOU APOLOGISE FOR YOUR" she screamed at her younger sibling, and Amber hardly ever lost her cool. Lisa was thinking, as was I, it was quite scary. _

"_Rudeness…?" came a muttered whisper from the door which Zack now re-entered from._

_

* * *

  
_

_Silent ensured for the next minute (or so it seemed), even Lisa was quiet._

"_It's okie Lisa, you don't have to apologise and you don't have to babysit me either." He turned to Amber. "I'm going to go play round Ron's house, so I won't be far; you remember where it is right?" Zack said with much care and diligence, and innocent all the same, he hadn't even mentioned or refuted Lisa's taunts at him; despite the fact he obviously heard them. He obviously cared for her nevertheless, which was something only us three and Ron really had in common with him._

_Amber was at a loss for what to say for a few moments, the awkwardness having been sliced so cleanly by Zack and without as much a cruel word thrown back. She looked as though she was about to speak when another voice came into the fray, it was none other than Lisa._

"_Hey… Zack, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what I said about you just now, I didn't mean it like it may have sounded…" she'd begun, her face hanging with shame._

"_It's okie sis, I know you didn't mean it. You just wanted to go spend some time with your friends, as you, and not as me and you. I get it, don't worry," Zack had cut in, calmly resolving the dispute. It was something I'd noticed in my time here too; Zack could definitely give Amber a run for her money in regards to keeping their emotions under control._

"_Yeah… Thanks Zack," the black-haired girl said quietly as she embraced Zack in a sibling-like hug, the later awkwardly hugging her back before falling away in a few seconds._

"_So how long are you staying there for Zack? It's just that I may be working till six tonight unless you all can sort out your own dinners," Amber interjected; returning to her usual level-headed tone as she lightly teased us all._

"_Hmm, it was probably gonna be until six at least, I think I'm having dinner round there as well. But you know where I am if you need me for anything don't you?" he said back to her, repeating his unanswered question from earlier, and he liked to keep on top of the information quarry, to be in the know and organised I mean._

"_Yes, yes, it was RM 407, on the 4__th__ floor, I remember. I'm not old that I've forgotten ya know!" she said firmly, but all motherly again as she teasingly ruffled up his head with her one free hand, which my mother had done a lot when I was younger, but lesser later on._

_After that, we all went our separate ways and I reflected back on the past year. On how happy and content I was right now, being part of this family, living the life I led. They had each lost so much but were all (in their own ways) still strong and carrying on, as I was fully committed to trying to be even half as good myself. _

_I greatly envied Amber and was proud of her, despite keeping most of her more exposed emotions to herself, as well as raising her sister and herself so long, alone and from scratch. That showed great bravery in spite of the dealing fate that life had brought them. I wish I could be that strong… I dismayed slightly, so selfless._

_Each of them was like a beacon of hope to me, an everyday reminder that perhaps, someday… I would sort things out for myself too. One way or another._

_And as I left my new founded home, I dwelled on these empowering feelings and then like a gazelle, I was gone. _

_END FLASHBACK _

_

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_

**STATION SQUARE / SHOPPING DISTRICT / 10.36 AM**

Half an hour or so later I was out of the shopping district and on my way to see if Amber needed an extra hand after all, having scored quite lucky and got some real cool stuff [in my opinion], despite my initial doubts. I was confident that Zack would like all this.

Id combed the boy section in the store, which name escapes me now, and had come out with a DVD box set of the latest Doctor Who series (no. 1 & 2) with special features, LOST series three on DVD with a black DHARMA t-shirt to go with it, a copy of the new Pokémon Diamond game, a requested book called 'Angels and Demons' and finally a DVD of Nightmare Before Christmas.

I'd gone quite to town on it, and was actually kind of intrigued by this 'Doctor Who' and the book, being brutally honest. Mostly it was all stuff that I'd seen in some form in Zack's room or heard him talk about. I hoped it'd bring a smile to his face anyway, but then again, it's not like I have much experience in pleasing guys, my subconscious moaned. My head drooped, and my eyes surely lost their sparkle at that, as I went full-on into missing Sonic mode…

Just the great warmth and friendship he radiated to everyone, how he was my hero and always would be. What I wouldn't give to see him and everyone again… to say how sorry I was.

A piercing scream nearby shattered these thought bubbles and opened my eyes as to the disturbed chaos around her, which I'd not let in, due to my own ironic melodrama moment. Around me several people were in shock, mouths wide open, and many pointed fingers aimed at the sky, so naturally I followed their direction, and I was shocked at what I saw.

Propelling itself with fierce force through the white fluffy clouds was a larger colossal warship, it was a mixture of red, yellow and blacks, and the vessel was streamlined in nature and very dominating in both looks and its unknown arsenal. Whilst everyone around me was fearful for the warships unknown threat, I was more horrified for a different reason, for I'd recognised the large insignia on the side. It bore a huge ginger moustache and had spec- covered eyes, which was all that I needed.

And as this airship loomed over the city skyline, with us all looking up at it in nervous anticipation, my insides churned with unease. Not only for its encompassing and constricting presence, here of all places, but for what it'd bring…

So as I clutched my shopping goods close to my chest, and worried for the safety of Amber and the others, all I knew for sure was that disaster was on its own way, for evil had a name, and that name is Robotnik.

_

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_

**Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream**

_

* * *

_

Well that's it for this lengthy character centralised chapter, I hope that it was one of my best written pieces yet as I feel it was, with the description and attention to detail to the character depth and little story hints I dropped along the way…

As for Amber, Lisa and Zack, they are indeed my first OCs, my trio, and they will be great underlying characters in this arc for Amy Rose and will have their lives and history, explored and explained beyond this saga eventually.

* * *

For simple illustrations and some information (which I prepared earlier), click on these links:

**Amber**

Teen - .com/deviation/50000285/

Mid Teen – Older Amber - .com/deviation/60844363/

Illustrator Painted - .com/deviation/52100389/

**Lisa**

.com/deviation/60844177/

**Zack**

.com/deviation/59416030/

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Overall I think I've delved into these three characters quite well for their first entry (heck I need to keep some mysteries kept right?), and ironically I've actually developed them more also, at least for Lisa and Zack's sakes anyway.

With Amber being much like my very own sister when she's in her mature 'moods', it ironically has only seemed fitting (something I realised as I was writing the last and LONG flashback in this chapter), that I base her younger blood sibling off of my sister's immature side as a young teen, and splice the traits half and half.

She'll be quite interesting to develop I think in future chapters/stories.

As for Zack, he's actually come off more like me than a stereotypical nerd (not to say I'm NOT strange or weird, but I'm no all knowing nerd), what with his attitudes to solitude and loving his time when he can be alone (and I'm not that socially inclined, I'm like half and half, and I like it that way) and also he likes most of the stuff I'm into and that'll came through (or will do) in Amy's birthday gifts for him.

* * *

I love writing these guys at the moment, and writing in general. I hope that I can continue improving and finish this story the way I envision it so to say!

**The next chapter is 'Lazy Days In Paradise', as we again return to Big as his path crosses with both Chaos and Knuckles. It's the last chill out chapter before we return to the action with the Freedom Fighters (hey the under dogs have to have their time too!).**

Again I'll probably update by the end of the month depending on things in life etc.

Take care ya'll ^-^


	7. Lazy Days In Paradise, Part I

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!

Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "**Change The World**" by ARTIST Dream

* * *

CHAPTER 7: Lazy Days In Paradise, Part 1/2 - [_Splintered Perceptions_

**Mystic Ruins Zone/ Deeper Jungle Region **

Amidst the humid deep jungle the clear white clouds dispersed into cool refreshing morning dew, which filtered down the layers of canopy foliage and glistened under the increasing hazy heat of the rising sun. The ground was usually rough and the terrain in turn unexplorable due to the scarce amounts of skylight available from the ground level and up, but due to the evening rainfall it was now consisted of various sludgy mud trails, that only one who were in tune with and an inhabitant of the jungle could transverse effectively.

The Mystic Ruins was after all a vast, impenetrable and maze like jungle of ancient mysteries, and came with a rich unexplored history. And whilst it had many exotic residents from the chatty and fruit feeding parrots and toucans, to the proud and feral tigers, to the stealthy dark panthers, to the venomous and vast numbers of insects and arachnids in its isolated location, the only lone Mobian resident was that surprisingly of the Mobian cat variety.

* * *

**Mystic Ruins Zone/ Deeper Jungle Region / Outside Big's House **

Big the Cat (as anyone who ever met him knew him by) was an independent soul who lived everyday doing what he loved to do, chilling out and fishing (and eating the catches) with her best friend Froggy. He was the kind of guy to always see the good in people and help them out if needed, even when sometimes he really shouldn't have.

One time he had been out walking out on one of the many clear days that usually occurred in the Mystic Ruins Zone, having just captured a large array of fish for supper which was slumped into a big heap atop his shoulders. On his walks he would just breathe in life and all it had to offer, its peace and solitude, its beauty and serenity.

Not long into this quiet excursion had he stumbled upon a grey cloaked old man with long messy hair whom was stumbling around quite aloofly and looked plainly lost. He looked basically like your typical hobo, and he was of the Chinese orientation and had those crafty and sneaky eyes about him, not knowing about people or their corrupted behaviours (albeit some more than others to be fair) didn't leave Big much choice but to be instantly taken in by this new stranger. Although how and why he was in the jungle of all places was a bizarre mystery.

Neithertheless, Big, being the kindred warm spirit he was paraded over to him and asked him what was wrong, completely oblivious to the shiny glint that was radiating from the crafty sneaks eyes at his valuables…

Before the thief gave his answer to the big 'dumb' feline freak (as he so thought) however he'd 'stumbled' over a rock on the ground and fell elegantly swiftly to the ground. This in turn only served to fluster and worry Big over the 'poor mans condition' and he with haste went over to go and help him up onto his feet, and prepare him some of his food for strength and comfort back at his for the eve.

It wasn't to be though, as with one swift fluid movement that would make even a ninja proud he'd flickered open his eyes, gave a sadistic grin with a hungry greedy tongue lick and then delivered a killer brutal blow to Big's head. In seconds it was done and the last thing that Big saw was blackness consuming his vision. It was over.

When he'd woke up and discovered that the old beggar man had scampered and stolen his well earned batch of freshly caught fish, save for the one left in front of him (which he must've dropped in his haste), Big didn't mind so much; he was pleased that he had got what he had wanted. Although if he'd asked Big if he could have any, all of them even, then he would have given them up in an instant if it were to help someone in need.

Despite his initial high tolerance on this violent act however, he did wish that he hadn't hurt him… but he felt no ill against him, as that just wasn't in Big's mind and heart.

Yes… He was the kind of guy to always see the good in people and help them out if needed, but not one to get involved if it involved high heroism (like Sonic and co), he just wasn't cut out for that and all the fighting and violence especially turned him off from it. Big was indeed a simpleton, trusting strangers when sometimes he really shouldn't have done, but his heart was always in the right place, and that's all that really matters don't you think?

* * *

**Mystic Ruins Zone/ Deeper Jungle Region / Outside Big's House / 10: 07 AM**

Fresh vibrant sea salt smells whiffed through the air, with a hint of burnt crispiness, the kind that radiates from when one is barbecuing meat on the BBQ grill on a hot summers day. And that was exactly what Big the Cat was doing right now, being used to getting up early to catch the best catches of the day from the many rivers that intersected within the jungle.

It was one of the best things of everyday, going fishing, catching some grub and smoking it till it was good and tender (with some crispiness) on the BBQ and sharing it with his best friend Froggy as they watch the sunset and the stars come out in the big blue sky above.

Just enjoying everyday together, with no worries in this paradise of theirs.

At the adulthood age of 18 he had already lived a much isolated life in solitude than most his age, he couldn't remember his parents much at all, all he had were fuzzy images that came to him now and again in his dreams. The only parental figure in his life had been his granddad, who had taught him all the tricks and wonders of fishing, as well as all the hidden secrets and sights in the Mystic Ruins.

It was three years to the day he'd died calmly of old age in his sleep, and it was something Big would never forget, he still shed a tear now and again for the loss of the only other person in his life, his lost link to his family, which would now remain forever a fuzzy memory.

Today's morning grill up was dedicated especially to his memory, featuring his many favourite fishes cooked to crisp perfection which included: River Salmon (tender and salty) and Jungle Piranhas (hard outer shells, delicious innards). And as the small jungle campfire of his continued to blaze and smoulder, he raised one up to the sky and offered a small whispered prayer to the sky, sun and stars, to his granddad.

He then quickly nipped inside his 'tree house' of sorts, which was a mid shade of brown and it was a short stumped but thick bamboo like jungle tree with a room or two situated underneath, which was accessible via a ladder to the outside. A small canopy of leaves covered the small but stable makeshift tent like formation with the wood stamps supporting the aforementioned canopy, which in turn sheltered the large woolly covered bed below.

A few miniscule moments later he returned with a plain white dining plate, and sprinkled across it were many insect delicacies & cut up plant leaves and flower buds; this was Froggy's, Big's best friend (a frog no less), natural diet and regular intake.

Today though, to treat both of them on this special day of days he decided to cut up some small portion of his fish catch and have them eat and dedicate this fine morning to his granddad. And this was something to which Froggy was unsurprisingly none too keen to share in, and then they settled down and eat their morning feast in pleasant content together.

Halfway in during their hearty breakfast though, Big the Cat noticed that he'd taken alot of bottled water in just the last few minutes or so, in fact now that he thought about it, it did feel rather _hot_ all and around, moreso than usual… The hot air radiated around him and it felt almost like… _burning?_ He could now feel this new unsettled air creep up his spine and along his body with increasing ferocity, and then he smelt the burnt wood cinders on the air and looked towards the growing twilight flares over and away from him, and in that instant he knew that there was rouble afoot.

A giant weight of unease settled now within his formally 'full' stomach, and nervous shivers shook through his body as his fear of the unknown threat grew and grew with every passing second. _This is not my fight_, he murmured to himself, as he covered his eyes with his big hand palms as if it could will away all the bad and ills, but the physical reactions were just beginning… Like the deathly slither of a preying snake, the dry and hot smoke from beyond his home area had now infiltrated his nostrils and the violent coughing that Big the Cat endured seconds later, brought about a halt to his prior feelings… something HAD to be done.

He slowly staggered up from the ground where he had fallen when his deathly coughs had begun and his bright yellow eyes quickly sought out his companion Froggy amongst the smoke filled area. He spotted him moments later all huddled up on the tree stump he'd been on all morning, panic exploded and spread throughout Big's being as not having any medical or knowledge on how to tell the telltale signs of death (bar the misty smoke that half hindered his vision), he couldn't tell whether his (only) friend was dead or alive…

His breathing became erratic and his body with haste began to work on overdrive, and on the a pure feeling of heightened desperation he ran through the unknown mists to him, all the while feeling his lungs and heart spasm violently due to the increasing smoke inhalations he was forced to take; he quickly grabbed Froggy and took him inside his jungle hideaway and wrapped him up in the covers of his large bed.

He began calling out his name in desperate begging earnest, begging him to awaken and be alive. _I don't want to be alone, not again, I don't wanna go through this again. I can't lose someone else I care about! Please Froggy… I couldn't live this life without you by my side. Who else would stand by me and listen to me and help my life be content as can be than you?_

A loud and disoriented croaking sound interrupted Big's trail of thought, it had seemed that the heavens had answered him and them both another chance to be friends together once more. But whilst he was overjoyed at his friend's 'revival', the deep weight of unease still remained within in him, he knew that now he couldn't run no more, not after what had nearly occurred to them both. This was their home, and now he'd have to leave the safe haven of paradise in order to save it from whatever lay beyond…

Despite these inspiring thoughts (which would normally help out the best of people), he was still as tense as ever all over, this unknown danger and upset was painful just to think about, how could he even think to go and face whatever monstrously lay out there? _Someone as large and slow as me could never amount to anything, not in these perilous situations…_ he thought with mild glumness.

Even he still managed to pry himself away from these thoughts and sought to weave his way into the now twilight coloured smoke, and upon seeing the fire's point of original, he ran as fast as he could and set out on his exhaustive journey, to try and save the only place he'd ever known so he could spend the rest of his days, good and happy with his best friend Froggy…

* * *

**LATER THAT DAY**

**Mystic Ruins Zone/ Deeper Jungle Region / Outside Big's House / 12.38 PM**

After the tense dilemma of the flash jungle fire that was caused by the Robotnik loyal robotic being known as 'Gamma', Big, being wholly curious in his newfound 'friend' had managed to lead the curious and silent being to his quarry, the large, secret and mysterious Mystic Ruins Temple hidden in the deepest dark undergrowths.

Once there he'd watched Gamma trend carefully but with a determined stride into the great and mysterious temple and into the ensuring darkness of the past, and a gentle warm feeling resonated within himself. Though he knew deep down that they probably would never cross paths again, he was glad that he'd managed to convince him from doing something he'd regret later (in the jungle fire Gamma had started) and help him out.

Big's lack of outer world knowledge meant that he actually had no idea of what a robot fully was, that it wasn't as sentient as he'd made Gamma out to be, like a typical Mobian, he wasn't as he wasn't made of flesh and blood. Big had naturally assumed that he was some kind of metal man with something life giving through his veins but he couldn't quite place it in his mind's eye as to what it was (and he wasn't gonna be rude as to ask his new friend of something so personal…)

Neithertheless aside from the obvious fire disaster, the meeting today with Gamma had warmed Big's heart. To have these fleeting moments now and again were utterly cherish able to the big lovable cat, on top of a good relaxing day in paradise, those moments just made everyday even greater just for the fact that he never knew when it would happen again, but it would and did happen. Whether it was for the good or bad or not, he wouldn't know until it happened.

And while not a hero and never having any plans of being one, Big did love helping people and today he'd done just that in his own non-violent way. And as he felt the sun kissed earth beneath his clay coloured sandals and the exotic aromas of the jungle wildlife take hold in his body, inside and out once again, he thanked the being of almighty nature for this day, and every day so far that he'd had so far of his life. He was glad and happy; to him life was _good_.

_And it wasn't going to change… _

* * *

It had taken him the best part of 40 minutes to trek back to his humble abode, _back to Froggy_, he thought with an elevating smile on his face and glee bubbling like a hot furnace of happiness down within his soul, _he was finally back and nothing could ever separate him and Froggy in such a cruel manner ever again. _Not if Big could help it…

Big swayed awkwardly as he tried to run and it wasn't helped by the 'in your face' and clear aftermath that the rising calamity of before had left, the scorched marks it had made on the earth itself as though it nothing but masses of black dust, and the ghostly greys and blacks that the half cremated foliage all around the neighbouring area bore, it was like death himself had carved his way through it and left some hellish decorations behind to spit the living.

It unnerved Big the Cat alot to see such a cruel and fast transformation, to see something like nature tainted and touched by evil, by destruction, and all in a blink of an eye, it made him feel sick. _What kind of a person would make someone do such a thing, make Gamma do this…?_ He didn't want to know, and it made him shiver so much that he just had to stop his 'running'.

_Is this the way it is, o mighty one, our almighty nature…? Is everything just a simple give and take to others, to be bad or good? Is that how the world, what life is? Just why…? I do not understand… Why must such evil injustice live on and the good and just suffer? We, the animals of this mystic jungle did not ask of this at all, we live and exist, and feel, is this what we get, simply for being here? We did nothing to this man, 'Robotnik', whoever he is… and yet he saw fit to send a slaved being and destroy anything in his way…_

_And all to get… what was it…? Something for Gamma to get from that ancient temple? _

_Just what could it be?_

_If only I could remember… (If only I had a better memory, I'm so forgetful…)_

All these foreign and taxingly painful thoughts swirled in Big's mind, it made it hurt, he never actually thought so much about the bad things of life, he didn't want to, not since his grandpa had died and least of all told him the truth about his parent's absence…

_No…_ He shook off the coming tears and wiped his eyes, he'd promised himself way back then, at his Grandpa's burial that he and Froggy had carried through that it was gonna be the end of it, there and then. No more crying, no more sadness, he and Froggy would live their own way, living and basking in the beauty that life had to offer them here in their home and the jungles beyond, they wouldn't live in its shadow anymore, but live for themselves…

Today unfortunately for Big had been a cruel reminder that perhaps it just couldn't be… Almost losing Froggy would've been the final nail in the coffin, the end of their life together in paradise, without him he would have nothing left… He sighed and leant against a darkened but still stable tree, gaining back his strength and attempted to free his mind of the plagues that hindered him now.

_I may not know of why the gods let this befall us but I know one thing, I do not like that man, that cruel man, that one who has Gamma as his slave. I do not like him at all… _

The sorrow building in his heart held him firm like a solid metal vice holding its prey in place, ripe and vulnerable for an inevitable painful end. This new feeling was foreign to Big you see, not once had he ever hated anyone before, not even the old beggar man who'd robbed him many months back or anyone else. (Except for those two, my so called parents he muttered with slight venom to his sub-conscious…) The pure animalistic rage that came with it scared him more than anything, it just simply wasn't him, and he didn't want to be such a person. He only wanted to do some good in his own way and live in peace, with his friend… _was that so wrong?_

_Well I guess…what's done is done but I know now what must be done (to save our home, and my aching mind…), and Froggy and I together will make sure it is so; we'll collect some untouched seedlings from different trees and plants, replant and nurture them, we'll make this jungle grow and thrive once more..._ _We'll follow it to the latter, just like Grandpa showed us, we'll make you proud, and I'll make you proud…_ And as he made a firm silent walk to his front door, his thoughts turned to seeing his friend Froggy once more, but not before swearing to himself that he'd do what he just thought about, he'd live and ensure that it happened, even if it killed him.

* * *

**Mystic Ruins Zone/ Deeper Jungle Region / Big's House / 12.51 PM**

The inside of the grounded 'tree hut' had escaped quite surprisingly the full might of the morning's inferno, nothing had been roasted away at least, the only downside sentiment to it all was that much of the place had been left with a looming cloud of black smudgy ash instead. It covered the walls and floor in places with its dark deathly dust, and being made of wood it would be quite hard to get out decently, if at all. The thick hide of the tree's trunk had indefinitely saved the jungle hideaway from imminent destruction, not only as a barrier against the hellish flames but also as a great wall that protected the place from falling into itself (as would've happened if it was just a typical thin jungle tree).

Big silently thanked the almighty nature gods that'd he and Froggy had picked out such a good place all those years ago, and then he set diligently to work on clearing everything up best he could. _I'll do this first and then I'll go in and check on Froggy, it's not like he'll be going anywhere soon_, he chuckled, and with that the inner warmth and happiness returned and brightened his face, clear evidence that his spirits had been raised once again (if only for a time at least).

He swept up the ash covered floorboard (before he trod too much into the wood to ever be cleaned out) before turning to clean the surfaces, because whilst he did indeed love to laze around and frolic most of the day he had a uncanny knack and love for cleanliness and order, a neat freak and a lazy bum all in one! (Wonders do never cease do they?)

He'd been brought up well to muster and keep on top of things as so and he never swayed from it, not unless something of more importance would disrupt him… Like keeping an eye on the roast or making sure Froggy didn't get himself caught in something again…

Out of the corner of his eye he caught the look of something, which prompted him to usher himself again out of his airy daydreaming like stance and take notice of what he was now holding with mild sadness in his large right hand.

It was a photo of him and grandpa on one of their many fishing excursions they used to take, encased in solid clear glass, held in firm and strong as if to prevent the treasured memory of being taken away somehow. A memory encased forever in glass, that's what it was.

Right now however it was covered in black soot much like the rest of the place had been from the fire's initial fallout, it bugged Big still to no end that in his earlier haste that'd he'd forgotten to shut the windows, else all this mess may not have occurred…

Alias nothing had been damaged, least of all one of his prized possessions (like the picture he held with delicate gestures in his palms) and as proof of that Big flicked the deathly dust off and it fell off with abrupt ease, and the glass began to sparkle and glisten with the happy memories it had stored within once again.

Washing up the remaining grime from her hands Big turned round and inspected his handiwork, always one to be somewhat critical at the worse of times about his work.

_Yes, yes… The floor is clean and shiny… Oh… that mug has to be here and this one of Froggy's here… Oh no, no, no! Have to wipe… this kitchen worktop… down some. Hmm… everything looks in order now, there that's better_, thought the big, lovable & simple minded Big the Cat with a big smile as he glanced around at his handiwork of clearing up his living room.

He quickly brewed himself up a nice hot steamy fruit tea, using a refined old tool that his granddad has built for him, in the last few months before he had quietly passed on; it consisted of a small chimney like skylight suspended above the middle part of the kitchen worktop, and fitted halfway down and fully across the hole was a large magnifying glass which acted solely as a heating device.

In the long hot summer weather like it was currently in this time of early August, it allowed for maximum heating potential in amplifying and concentrating the suns energies on whatever lay below as it scoured down the custom chute, manufactured like that of a good old sun calendar that the ancients would have used to tell the time of day and the seasons etc.

Big generally used it to heat up water for food or for bathing by putting it in a strong and enforced wooden and iron strapped bucket (very old school and basic), but with all the windows and doors closed it also acted as a lesser radiator system if left be for awhile.

Needless to say, Big was very glad of it, and to have at least helped in his little way in being the lookout and for handing the tools up to his granddad at he chopped and smashed the sky chute into being, he wasn't a mechanic of any kind that was for sure but as he brought the cup to his lips and sipped from his grey clay mug the taste and aroma easily told him, as it would anyone who could taste and drink it that he was one great cook and man of the kitchen!

After finishing his own gourmet like drink (made of crushed fruits and tea leaves) and wiping his mouth with his bare arm, he put it down on the light pine coloured wooden workshop and set off to go and see how his friend Froggy was faring now.

_The initial shock should be over, and he should be all better again now… Oh Froggy? _

The unexpected sight from when he entered the bedroom area stopped Big in his tracks, goodness knows how many pieces that fallen clay mug would've be in now if he'd still had it in his now tensed hands.

His eyes upon entering had immediately been drawn to the bed, but Froggy wasn't there and the covers had been thrown across so he'd obviously gotten up and outta bed. He'd been alil nervous then but not completely bewildered, _I mean frogs as great as Froggy must heal quicker than most, right?_ He'd thought to himself, so as to cover up his creeping worry.

Big's eyes quickly darted around the room but could not see his faithful companion through the black ashy dust that had too befallen this room of theirs, it was when a loud croaking sound had rippled throughout the room that he'd looked on up as to find out the source.

_Wait a second… was that Froggy?_ He quickly exclaimed to himself. _But… that voice, it was strange, almost like the sound violent water, but it was definitely like Froggy's voice too!_

The cause of Big's startled confusion and mounting horror was now perched and frozen on the spot on the open window sill; it was none other than Froggy but something was now strangely peculiar and menacing about the amphibious creature. It bore the same overall body likeness as before but what was usually a pair of bright yellow eye's were now a strong emerald green, with hazy strands of swirling dark red here and there, as if he was possessed!

As if possible 'demonic' possession didn't unnerve the plump feline enough but strangely and scarily enough he'd also grown a tail?! And yes whilst most normal frogs often kept the remnants of their tadpole tails after evolving, they weren't like this. The tail that Froggy now sported was quite large and fitted to his body and stretched out at least a good 15cm in length and about 25cm in height, the odd thing about it was that it totally clear and see through like water, but upon a closer look Big realised that it WAS in fact a liquid moving water of a tail.

In all of his life he'd never seen something so astonishing, I mean the relics and murals in the ancient temple was awe-striking, but to actually witness a phenomenon right in front of your very eyes was completely different, it was _real_.

_Wow… this is amazing Froggy…_ Big was thinking to himself in silent awe, _but just how and what happened to you…?!_

With determination he managed to break out his stone stature, of which he'd been stuck in for at least a full minute or two by now and stumble slowly forward towards the window… Eager and yet frightened at the same time, to find out what had indeed happened.

Unfortunately he didn't get a chance to grab him or interrogate the Froggy 'felon' (in whatever way one does interrogate a frog?) as with a shrieking hiss, Froggy snapped and swashed his long watery tail and escaped by jumping out of the open window, breaking a handmade flower pot of Big's in the process as well as splashing mild water over the cat's body.

And with a burst of speed that even he didn't know he possessed he then leapt into an awkward run and all without thinking much to even take a breathe. The blunt and hard slam of a door was the next thing to be heard, moments later…

* * *

**Mystic Ruins Zone/ Deeper Jungle Region / Outside Big's House / 3.35 PM**

Big was worried now, _Froggy has never acted that way before, all violent… Or worse yet run away from me_, these thoughts buzzed in his brain around and around, over and over in his frantic outside search, his eyes darting from one place to another, to the trees, to the nearby river, even the sky itself.

_Well they do say that the simplest place is sometimes the best to look…_

And in this case that was certainly the case, as Big discovered when in his short frantic madness caught the glimpse of something green and orange on the nearby dirt pathway.

It didn't take him long this time to know that it was indeed Froggy giving him the evil's right now, a malicious and angry stare, with his body all tensed up as if ready for a brawl.

He shivered a cold nervous shiver, frozen still again by terror and high uncertainly. _Oh Froggy… you're eyes, they used to be so calm and friendly and now they're bright green and dark red, and full of anger… What happened to you my friend whilst I was gone…? Are you even still my friend anymore? Am I all alone again now?_

Small tears began to glisten from his large amber cat-eyes, and nothing had ever made him cry and mentally be in pain like this, not since he'd lost grandpa.

_He was the last of my family, the only one who cared and wanted me… Not alike my parents, whom only met the once to mate, 'mum' conceived me and then they both abandoned me. Probably moving on to the next person and then the next; never settling & never caring about me, at all. That's what grandpa told me anyway, he never did like them or their 'traditional' ways. I was… what they called an orphan I guess, someone whom was never wanted._

_But he took me in and raised me as his own, taking in his rampant moral less sons' own offspring (probably one of many), and caring and raising me with love and respect. _

_He taught me lots of wondrous things about the world he'd seen outside and of this Mystic region, and even if I didn't understand something, like that maths-matics thing? He'd still continue on and help me, encourage me. He was and will remain the best to me, always. _

_Only him and Froggy ever cared or wanted me around, and it was for that reason that I sought never to leave them or this place, and risk being hurt by another again…_

_Once grandpa died of his old age, it was only me and Froggy left, that was all I needed and do need. And I can't bear to let it all go now! I won't let you go Froggy! Even if it kills me…_

Mustering all remaining physical strength and with his renewed determination and confidence he slowly stepped forward and prepared to take the plunge, be it to win or lose:

To win back his only friend, his support and happiness in life or else lose everything.

_Just what would the gods of the wild nature decide, he wondered?_

* * *

I'm SOOOO sorry about the lack of updates, my personal life has been so up and down the last few months and lack of initial inspiration for this story didn't help, but I'm back on form methinks now. Although I'll be back at university soon for my final year no less, so updates will still be hindered, but hopefully not as long as this one was (at least until the end project crunch deadline time anyway…).

As you may have guessed from the beginning, I split this chapter into two parts, and this was because of the already lengthy chapter I have here and all the additional stuff that has been feed into it. Seriously this chapter was so much simpler and it didn't even have much of Big's history in either!

That all kinda came to me whilst I was researching Big and his character, mainly how little we know of him, but the biggest thing that came to mind was his simple and seen laidback attitude to life and I stemmed it from there into what (I hope) was a good original and enriching short delve into his character.

I had much fun writing these last two thirds or so of the chapter, I even surprised myself! This chapter is now nothing like it was briefly written down in my notes, and for that I'm quite proud of myself. I hope you guys all liked this too.

The last half of Big's story (for the time being) will be coming up next, and this will most certainly stick to the original plan; one that involves a certain red echidna… oh and not forgetting 'FROGGY!' of course. :-p

I hope you enjoyed this, and the chapters so far, any comments or ratings would be nice and appreciated!

NEXT: **Lazy Days In Paradise, Part 2/2 – [??????**

Again I'll probably update by the end of the month depending on things in life etc.

Take care ya'll -


	8. Lazy Days In Paradise, Part II

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!

Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "**Change The World**" by ARTIST Dream.

* * *

**CHAPTER 7: Lazy Days In Paradise, Part 2/2 - ****Stranger In A Strange Land**

**Mystic Ruins Zone/ Deeper Jungle Region / Outside Big's House / 3.41 PM**

The sun was beginning to fall now, and the humidity of the jungle undergrowths was seeping away into a cool breeze. The setting sun looked like a blazing meteor in the sky; coming even closer to the planet and setting the once azure heavens alight with crimson flames in its wake.

But whilst the immediate climate was indefinitely cooling down from the typical barrage of tropical sun energy, elsewhere in the ancient exotic hideaway, hot and uncanny tensions were building in the presence of two person(s).

A blazing fire… a mysterious robot man… and now a personal friendship, long woven is now facing its ultimate test from the unknown, just what else would happen in this mystic region?

Big the Cat now stood before the now ominous form of his best friend Froggy, the one who'd hissed that ear piercing unnatural screech and had run away in pure desperation whenever he'd gotten close to him.

All this happened, whatever had _happened_, occurred whilst he'd been away that morning…

_I simply don't understand how someone could change so much… so quickly. Its simply a mystery to me_, thought Big as he continued to bravely stare down the now unfamiliar figure ahead of him.

_Well it's now or never, I guess…_ he thought with a large gulp in his throat.

And with that he bit down nervously on his upper lip and began a swift movement to grasp Froggy before he could make an escape again. Unfortunately the foreign entity foresaw this sudden advance, hopping with ease out of the way, and out of the big cat's palms.

"Oh Froggy! Just what is wrong with you today?! First you disappear out of your bed (_when you should've been resting…)_ and get me worried sick and then you go and break one of our favourite…", Big snapped at the evasive amphibian, having falling down on the ground.

_**HISS!!**_

Froggy was now standing once again in his tense, electric striking posture and hissing all the while in Big's direction, the former bright yellow eyes of his again becoming a radiating swirling hue of red and green.

This violent manoeuvre caused Big to fall over backwards and land bottom first on the hardening sun kissed earth, a distance or so away from the tall presence of Froggy.

Another nervous gulp passed through Big's throat before he could once again speak.

"And… those… eyes, just where'd you get them from? They weren't there this… morning…" he managed to stutter out, his eyes now a wide with an emotion behind them that was oddly enough fairly new to him. And that was one of none other than fear…

_Oh no… I couldn't do it. I knew that I should've even bothered to try… to be strong and unfeasible, I'm just not like grandpa… And now it looks like this will be impossible. Whatever's wrong with him is something I cannot deal with it seems…_ he thought sadly, all the walls of faith and optimisms he'd strongly built up over the years were now crumbling and falling back down to earth, to reality in dozens of pieces.

_But this is no normal occurrence, even someone like me can tell that! Those eyes… so much anger and malice in them, resentment… what could I have done to upset him so?_

And after a few silent minutes of personal thought, in he he'd regained his steady intake of breath and stabled his nerves again, he'd realised that there was nothing at all that he'd done wrong. He'd always been there for Froggy, whatever he'd wanted or needed he'd get it for him and Froggy _knew_ all this… [_I always told him how much he meant to me, nearly everyday_]

_Perhaps then… it is not Froggy here taunting and hissing at me right now? Maybe it's one of those… like grandpa described to me once before (on many a cool starry night), the ones that ancients call demons._

_Is it a demon's foul work at play here, did they kidnap Froggy from me…?_

He stole a quick glance in 'Froggy's' direction, before deciding with haste… n_o those are certainly not the eyes of my friend; he'd never feel such things. Such evil things!_

Anger erupted briefly within himself, at whatever had taken his friend away from him, but the dangerous reality brought him back to his thoughts; just what could he hope to stand to do against a demon's wicked might? He was no hero; he had no super powers the like costumed heroes in the comic book collection of his and grandpa had been given. He was a nobody here and a slow and powerless one at that.

_Perhaps I could find someone out there in the big old world that could help me out? Yea that'd work… But then first I'll have to catch him and he certainly doesn't look like he's gonna let me leave…_

_This is going to a lot harder than I first…_

A loud crashing sound was the next thing he heard, cutting off his last words with ease and stopping all initial trains of thought immediately thereafter.

_What was that… just what the hell is going on now?_

And as if to answer him, the heavens roared and the sky was blotted out in the shadow of something very large, and falling… lets not forget falling at great speed!

* * *

**Mystic Ruins Zone/ Deeper Jungle Region / Outside Big's House / 3.58 PM **

In the next minute or so after the initial sighting of the falling mass the ground had started shaking with increasing violent tremors, almost throwing Big clean off of his feet again but he braved them, kept his momentum and held firm his ground. The noise was deafening but he forced his mind to concentrate, to block out all the pain, all he was worried about now was Froggy, or at least this form of 'Froggy' anyway…

With his yellow cat eyes darting around the vicinity with record speed (for him), it should come as no big surprise that he found Froggy quickly and with fair ease. The amphibian creature was hopping frantically amidst the cracked fissures that had broken out across the immediate area, his glossy demon like eyes were now bulging with maddening fear, a much change from only minutes ago when he'd been glaring stares of death at Big.

Even despite the ensuring chaos and the horror he still felt, something within Big snapped him into action motion and any thoughts he'd just been thinking about his own survival were not bolted out of his foremost memory, all that was on his mind now was to save Froggy… _so that he could save him…_

With Big now pushing himself to the limits to make this lengthy stride amidst the surrounding chaos the terrain certainly looked set to make it as hard as it could be, with the tremors now splitting apart more and more of the jungle undergrowth and the steamy pressure rising like bold cinders from within, the initial challenge just got a whole lot harder!

The dust clouds rose quickly and obscured the feline's vision, swirling like locusts on a prime feast in the scorching desert and scratching at Big's hide. It hurt like mad, but he could just about see glimpses of green and blue through the haze with adamant focus (the green jungle and blue sky, he figured correctly). The earth now was quickly dissipating below Big's feet into the air or into the formed crevices, like it an apple being peeled at high speed; it was making it very hard to press on forward coupled with the howling wind.

Nevertheless the plump feline trudged hard onward anyway, flailing his arms about hoping for any assistance or to land it lucky and grasp Froggy's form…

And like a quiet murmuring sound, his acute ears then pricked up at a distinct sound that he'd know anywhere as being only that of a croaking sound, it was Froggy and he sounded scared! _I have to get him… and save… him…_

"Ugh!"

A quick rush of wind slammed into the feline's back and tore him off his feet and from the ground, an earthen twister had been formed and sucked Big right up. The next few moments were all a pulsating blur and a major headache; all he really recalled later was ascending above the jungle and then seeing a mortified Froggy sail past at high speed. With everything Big could muster, even his frantic attempts to grab him close did no good and the pair both went spinning off and then it all went black…

The fish-loving teen feline then groggily woke up here_, _wherever _here_ was anyway…

* * *

**Mystic Ruins Zone/ Unknown Location / 4.16 PM **

He didn't know how long he'd been out for, but assumed that it'd been the strong air currents that had propelled him here…

_But just where is here exactly?_

But quickly looking around with his eyes and he came with haste to the decision that it was the most amazing place he'd had ever seen.

The surrounding landscape of rainforest jungle opened up into great grassy plains, and all around you could see many different environments and places just aching to be explored. To the east for example, there was a large jungle that looked like it'd hold an abundance of new life even in comparison the one back in the Mystic Ruins…

And to the north was a large mountain peak that spawned over this stretch of land, with one half been covered in what looked like an eternal winter and snow (it was mobian summer time after all currently), and the other was bare and bore large scale rocky brown ridges and terrain leading up into the sky…

And whilst some mist surrounded its peak he could make out some ambers flaring to and fro up and down from the volcano's core, burning bright reds and oranges before falling away from view once more.

To the west there was a large area of sand, sand and more sand… from what he could tell there was nothing out there, although a large pyramid structure in the far distance may or may not be a mirage (the hazy heat that befell him when he even started to walk in that direction made it hard to tell).

The sound of gushing water got his attention next, and it was situated just to the southern bearing (to where Big was currently anyway), a stones throw away in fact. Taking this handed opportunity for a brief peaceful interlude to his erratic adventures of late, he walked playfully with a great smile on his face to the lake's edge, feeling the hard and firm earth beneath his feet all the while (a much pleasant change from the aerial flight of before).

Using his natural taught instincts (and recalling some pointers his grandpa had made) he quickly deduced that the water in this lake was clean and thus drinkable; it looked so pure and sparkled so much that it was like it was a magical lake! _But then this place really does seem so wondrous to even exist, so it must be magical… right?_ Big laughed at the merry thought, even if this place was magical like in the vein he was thinking of then it'd surely never be the likes of him that'd discover it…

Whilst he was there sitting by the lakeside drinking scooped waters from his palms it came to him, the answer to his initial perplexities with this place, the truth of the matter was that it reminded him very much of something out of a fairytale book! _Could it be such a place… or is this just the 'other side'? Have I passed on and into some paradise and not noticed? Well some do say that traumatic experiences can cause such odd events and I guess today really was one of those (for me). Or could this island paradise really be real?_ The mind of Big was bustling away at high speed as to the possibilities, hopefully towards a viable solution.

He truly hoped that he wasn't dead, as he still wanted to live a healthy long life, doing the things he loved to do, perhaps also venture out to some nearby places… He didn't wanna be here, alone and confused as he was now, as being alone was one of his biggest fears and one that Froggy had always kept far at bay. And now he was gone, and Big was stuck in the middle of nowhere, on a deserted… island?

His thoughts had been clouding his mind and senses for a long period so it took him awhile to notice that he'd been walking (for goodness knows how long) and had stopped at the edge of the island. It was here, under the abundant golden rays of the setting sun that finally took in the expansive ocean in front of him.

_A large expansive area of water that stretches far as the eye can observe… That is what grandpa described it as, so this must be it. This is what they call the ocean!_

And for the next ten minutes he let his mind wander whilst he gazed at the marvel spectacle in front of him, the sun's rays lit up the ocean as though it were a serene cauldron of fire, warm and clear. It really was a home away from home.

And the air was surprisingly refreshing for the 'salt air' that his grandpa had once told him about in regards to his many ventures across their continent and beyond. He stuck out his tongue to taste it, but the resulting powerful sour taste immediately made him gag a little bit. _I'm definitely not trying that again…_ he groaned inwardly.

He next took note of the fact that across the large bay of twilight lit water was an equally large and expansive jungle terrain stretching across the far shores ahead, and it was a familiar one at that, for it could be none other than the jungles of his home, the Mystic Ruin Zone!

Big could tell this because not only could he make out the ancient temple's entrance through the tree clearings but could also see the unique glow spot of the sun at the pinnacle of the temple's peak. The temple had a unique sun disc at the very top which (according to Big's grandfather) bore the inscriptions of the calendar for the ancient people that originally resided in this area. The sight was one that he showed Big many a time over whilst he was growing up during a sunset just like this…

_Hmm so I over here but then where is this? I swear the ocean was never this close before…_

Looking back and forth between the two locations, Big concluded that his current locale seemed to be held up on stilts above a large basin of water, with the large and life abundant jungle foliage behind him reaching high into the sky.

_Yes the ocean was never this close but then… wait a minute!_

_I remember now, there's a lake just near to the ancient temple, a rather large one… _

_But where did this large island paradise come from? Was that what fell earlier from the sky…? Before I could grab Froggy…_

Too many questions, with few answers it seems, he thought.

_I need to make headway for home, and then I'll need to get a Froggy back. Perhaps he's already at home and waiting? I hope he's friendlier this time…_

Taking one last look at the 'ocean' to commit to memory he then set back in the previous direction he'd followed, but this time he had his sights set on some place different. He was heading towards the mountains, as something innate within told him that it was on the right path to finding Froggy and getting off this place.

That's what he told himself anyway; although for all we know it could've been because of the temple like structure stood posed and immaculate at its base…

* * *

**Mystic Ruins Zone/ Floating Island / Emerald Shrine / 4.56 PM **

At a steady pace it didn't take all too long for Big to reach this summit, but even breathless as he was it still didn't take away any of the surprise that he felt now he was up close to this temple building.

It was… far less grand than he'd expected, nothing of the colossal size of the Mystic Ruins' own local mysterious temple ruins. Instead of being wide and spacious it was actually very on the small side and compact, and was a dirty brown & gold colour everywhere except for the many odd shaped structures dotted around its main submit, and the 4 pillars stood high and above the centre piece area at the top of the staircase.

A fleck of red caught his eyes for a moment or two but Big casually waved it off in face of the mysterious odd shaped structures mentioned before, and they intrigued him because carved into them were all manner of what appeared to be writing (although to Big's own eyes they appeared to be nothing but gibberish and alien like).

They consisted of many enigmatic symbols; _these must be some of the foreign languages that Grandpa told me about once_, Big thought to himself as he rested his hand on one such structure piece. _Looks a bit like that German one to be honest… a bunch of gibberish that was, it made my head hurt a bit…_

The way that they had been carved so beautifully and perfectly did indeed suggest higher superiority from whoever had made them, although Big had no idea where to begin speculating on that… Another odd thing his senses picked up as he leaned on one of these blocks was that they were rather warm, like they were cooling down from something? It was all rather baffling to be honest; it was like these things were _alive_.

It just plain unnerved him so he decided to leave them be and investigate the rest of this small but mysterious shrine, and the only place left was up the straight and simple staircase. And so he did just that (although it took him awhile, seeing as he was rather tired after all of today's strange events after all).

At the top of the shrine he now had a pretty grand view of the surrounding island terrains (looking away from the towering mountain peak of course), and he could also see what the grey & silver, spiral designed four pillars were supposed to be showing of the centre now. There was nothing in the hole there strangely nevertheless but it looked as though it used to be containing or holding something important, and the pillars were just there as a supporting structure of some kind.

_Hmm I wonder why there is nothing at the top of them though, like with the buildings in that Rome place Grandpa described though. It seems a bit silly to have them there and not doing anything…_ It was like the place was incomplete or something, Big thought to himself, his curiosity for life and its ever branching mysteries growing with every moment that this day had brought to him (thus far).

Unfortunately in light of his puzzled but exciting demeanour his earlier flicker of 'red' was about to have more haunting and real effects, as he then saw the occupant of it sprawled out in front of the central shrine area. He looked hurt and was of a crimson red colour, with odd coloured shoes and white glove with knuckles on them.

But Big could still feel a hearty pulse in his neck, having rushed over there in a dazed panic on sight. It would seem that he (?) would live, although what had happened here he couldn't begin to fathom. _It seems I don't know a lot of things these days… Is the world outside always this confusing and mysterious?_

_I wish you could be here to explain it all for me Grandpa… I'm just so bad at learning by myself_, he thought inwardly, bringing him close to tears. _If only I could remember those First Aid techniques then I could be useful to this person here!_

"Ugh!" a nearby scream of agony then uttered.

The red figure quickly thrashed his way outta Big's presence and stumbled his way to a nearby pillar for support, moving very awkwardly and in obvious pain. He quite plainly looked like he didn't want any help, his colossal pride showing as clear as a sunny cloudless day (even Big could tell that).

The whole escapade had lasted mere seconds, though it felt like much longer before the red figure then began mumbling incoherently, with raging undertones.

"Ugh… what the hell happened? All I remember is… that crazy water monster and then all black… Just how long has it been?"

"What about the Chaos Emeralds?!" his eyes now went slightly manic, shimmering their mixed purple hue very clearly to Big, of whom Knuckles still hadn't noticed yet. He then rushed over to the hole in the shrine and cursed loudly, thumping his large (hands?), thought Big, in frustration.

"Now what the hell I'm I supposed to do…?" he muttered, partly with rage and with some degree of sadness as well.

This poor person not only looked in a terrible beaten up shape but he'd obviously had something very dear to his own heart taken from him, by some 'water monster'? It was a bit crazy but then after today, Big was starting to think that anything was possible these days… Still it saddened him to see someone this way (even of someone he'd never even met before), and it was then that he made a brave forward move, alerting Knuckles to his presence almost immediately.

To many people that would've been a fatal move on their part but for Big this time he was lucky, as Knuckles wasn't in tip top shape, his punch missing the big feline creature by miles. Still his anger wasn't going to subside that easily…

"Who the hell are you and what are you doing here on _my_ island?! You have no business here," he retorted with malice, his eyes primed in Big's direction. I sure as the Master Emerald's great wisdom & powers won't miss the bloated creature this time, he thought. His fighting spirit now renowned and ready, it was in his blood after all.

This angered backchat, the likes he'd never much witnessed other than perhaps from his own selfish parents (from what he could remember of them) definitely caught Big off guard, prompting him to shake and mix mumble his next choice of words.

"Well umm… sir… my name is Big…"

_Hmph figures that would be his name… it suits him well_, Knuckles thought hastily. He was so filled with anger he'd probably have spat that out (had he had voiced it vocally) most likely. He decided to let the feline speak whatever words he had in him and then see what he should do with him first.

"I was just looking… for my… friend Froggy… as I think he may… have landed on your island here… after it crashed along with me…?" Big continued on, the words clear and concise, although he himself was still shaking with some primal fear.

"I mean you no harm. Honest!" the feline said in a quick panic, whilst waving his arms at the now advancing echidna.

Knuckles grabbed him swiftly by the neck with minimum strength and power (as he didn't wanna hurt Big much, just yet…) and held him just mere inches above the shrine's ground, just to unnerve him abit before...

"So you're just looking for your frog friend? You're not with that crazy water monster who took my Chaos Emeralds?" Knuckles rattled out loud and clear, holding Big in a semi-vice like grip as he awaited an answer, of any kind, to his questions.

"Yes… yes! I am just looking for my friend… Froggy. That is all sir…?" said Big a little more confidently, whilst also trying to enquire into this fellow's name.

"The name is Knuckles, and don't you forget it!" he said with pride, with a small thump to his chest, his eyes closed and a very small smile apparent on his face; as he slowly put Big down on his feet once more.

"Oh okay… I see. Hello Knuckles…" said with a smile, and his palm held out for a shake.

* * *

Knuckles reluctantly shook it quickly before looking out over the edge of the shrine and with his right hand covering his forehead; he then looked out over the island, looking and searching for something…

This left Big promptly to his thoughts, which by now were getting more muddled by the minute. _Chaos Emeralds…? What in the gods of nature's name are they? I know of crystal emeralds, gemstones, but why would they be chaotic?_ Big mused such thoughts quickly over in his mind, over yet another unveiled enigma of the day.

And whilst indeed he was curious about all the stuff he's seen on this island thus far, he didn't wanna be rude… And besides it seemed like the subject of these 'Chaos Emeralds' meant as much to him as Froggy did to Big himself, he didn't wanna add any more hurt to injury but pressing forward on such things.

But wait this is his island, he said so right…? So he'd know if Froggy is here or not! Big realised, and with rising glee in the pits of his stomach he was about to ask the mysterious Knuckles creature whether he did know of any such thing when...

"Oh yes! I remember now!" shouted Knuckles loudly, the anger seeping again into his voice as he said it. This sudden outburst knocked Big off of his feet and onto the hard ground… yet again.

"The last thing I saw before I blacked out… It was a symbol, a very familiar one… I'd remember that moustache and rounded egg head anywhere – Dr Robotnik!" he spat at the last name with the biggest amount of venom Big had seen from him yet, _this Dr Robotnik is obviously a very bad person… first making Gamma do those things and now… to have done something to Knuckles here?_ Big thought silently, the rising glee from mere moments ago now filtered instead with grave ill. _More bad things are happening… What could this all mean…?_

Knuckles was now muttering again to himself whilst pacing around the inner shrine but Big could hear some of what he said, as he was trying to look for an interval to interrupt and ask his former question…

"… water monster…be with Robotnik somehow… but how did it get through the Island's defence systems?" Knuckles muttered, obviously bewildered over many things.

_Wait a dang minute…_ the Guardian thought suddenly.

"Hey, you said your name was Big right?" he asked the plump feline calmly, stepping forward into his direction, there was no malice afoot this time.

"Yes that is right… Knuckles… Oh I wanted to ask…" Big began.

"And you got here by a tornado you say, from the main land; Mystic Ruins?" Knuckles continued on, some slight scepticism apparent in his tone of voice now.

"Yes Knuckles, it swept me and my friend Froggy away and everything went black for a long, long time as that island fell and crashed down from the sky…"

"The Floating Island crashed!" Knuckles exclaimed, reality still hauntingly catching up to him. Not to mention the random visitors it'd brought to his island…

"Yes… I guess it did. We're now on the Great Mystic Lake of the Mystic Ruins Zone, just over there is the mainland jungle area, with a temple further in and my home…" Big pointed out, hoping to add some kind of reassurance to Knuckles' well being by appearing more confident, calm and comfort in his manner of voice.

And following the big palm and fingers of Big the Cat out across the island, Knuckles could make out the ocean (something he'd rarely still seen) and across from it an exact matching description to Big's explanation…

"Oh man…" Knuckles groaned, this was worser than he thought. _Not only did Robotnik get through the Island's defence systems, nor did I get beat by some creepy water monster, and lose the Chaos Emeralds; I now have to contend with random visitors to my downed island in the middle of the Mystic nowhere!_

_Why must I be spited so… oh great Master Emerald? Is this my destiny…? _

_But nevertheless, Robotnik is behind this and I must find him, and beat down that water monster for good. No one roughs me up and gets away with it!_ Knuckles thought, his warrior pride and instincts returning, as he punched his palm in warrior style. Getting ready for the anticipation of battle…

"Knuckles?" Big asked softly, but clear, taking measures to make sure he was answered this time by stepping forward towards him this time (even if he was kinda scary at times and so strong…).

"Hmmm? Yes Big, what is it…?" _And make it quick because I'm kinda busy, please._

"Well I wanted to ask of you whether you had seen Froggy… my friend? You said this was your island and all so I figured you'd know?" Big asked, trying with all his will and muster to keep his eyes locked with Knuckles', as he needed to know. And to help things along he also gave him a recent photo of him from his small pouch on his belt.

The cat's sudden outspokenness surprised the warrior guardian abit, and whilst he initially felt it was a rather dumb question to ask (seeing as he'd been knocked out for goodness knows how long), he respected Big's courage and tat in asking him in such a manner, as not many could or wanted to with him… Knuckles' hasty temper & warrior pride and all made him a tough customer to get on the wrong side of after all.

"Uhh… Well, sorry to say man but I haven't seen any kind of frog on this island for a long time, especially not to this description you've given me here. Sorry Big… but I don't think Froggy is anywhere near here," Knuckles said sincerely, whilst giving back the picture to Big.

The answer disappointed Big very much but try as he may he was thankful for an honest answer anyway. "It looks like I'll have to keep looking then…" he mumbled sadly, to his lone self.

"It looks that way I'm afraid…" the guardian responded weakly, not really having anything better or more confiding to say (since his social skills in general weren't exactly amazing, especially with a complete stranger).

"Umm… I know this is a bad time to be asking this of you but… I was wondering… Do you know where the nearest city is from here, the Mystic Ruins?" Knuckles asked slowly, wanting not to overdo it (as he wanted to get things moving on his end now, selfish as that may have been). He had just realised that with all of Robotnik's robots, oil and machinery that a city would probably be the best place to look first, as he probably wouldn't have gone so far. He hoped anyway…

_Although that giant airship may have got him anywhere by now_, a grave & defeated inner voice echoed in his subconscious, much to Knuckles' annoyance.

"Hmm, well there is Station Square which my grandpa told me about, it's just a train ride away from the edge of the Mystic Ruins. Just keep going west from here and you should reach it," Big pointed out again across the bay and past the jungle, into the next part of the Mystic Ruins, where the newly formed Station Square Express would take visitors to and fro from the city to this ancient, protected tourist site.

_Hopefully I explained that right… Yea I think I did_, Big thought again in reflex.

"Cool, I got it Big! Sorry I can't stay but I hope you find your friend soon!" Knuckles shouted out as if to the heavens themselves as he took a short running sprint ad then jumped off of the shrine, gliding gracefully into the air above like an experienced eagle in flight and soon across the island, to the short ocean plain beyond.

"Wait! Knuckles! Please take me with you!!" Big screamed as hard as he could, Knuckles all the while getting smaller and further out if sight.

_Sorry Big, but I have my own duties to fulfil now, but I know that you'll find your friend! Friends… I wonder… how they are all doing now?_ It'd been awhile since he last saw them all to say the least. Knuckles reflected as he soared in the air, feeling the warm dusk winds massaging slowly through his dreadlocks and allowing him even greater altitude.

_Now what am I to do…? And how am I going to get off of Knuckles' island?_ _I wish he hadn't run off like that… Everyone seems to be doing that of late, always in a rush… Why can't everything just slow down and be simple?_ Big the Cat was thinking to himself, now all alone up on the lone 'Chaos Emerald' shrine.

_I hope he finds what he is looking for though… I think he's a nice guy deep down_, _under all that anger_, Big thought with his goofy smile on his face. _Maybe we'll meet each other again someday._

He then started walking…

"Now how am I going to cross this large ocean water? I _don't_ like water, especially not big water!" his cat instincts now playing havoc with the very thought of him having to cross this great bay of cold water. But alias it seemed there was no other way…

* * *

**Mystic Ruins Zone/ Great Mystic Lake Edge Side / 5.41 PM **

And contrary to his previous adamant feelings against such a venture just twenty odd minutes ago, Big the Cat had did it… He'd plunged into the deep great water, as the soggy and plump feline coming up on the Great Mystic Lake's edge side now proved without a doubt.

"Oh!! Uggh…" *Cough!* "Oh!! Uggh…" *Cough!* he groaned, panting at the lake side, trying to eject the water from his respiratory systems as quickly as possible.

"Hmm… that actually wasn't as bad as I'd thought it'd be." Big the Cat uttered to himself, in his trademark glum and slow tone of voice; having taken a minute or two to stagger and straighten his erected pose up. _I'm still alive!_

"At least the water was kinda warm and not freezing…" _Although my body now smells no good… Ugh. Oh well._

"I'm not doing so much swimming again though… too tiring for me!" he said to himself, as he walked briskly into the jungle, towards the entrance to the Mystic Ruins…

* * *

**Mystic Ruins Zone/ Entrance To The Mystic Ruins / 5.59 PM**

"This must be the place that Big told me about…" Knuckles said to himself, in mild awe at the small Train Station building that lied on the outskirts of this large region. He'd seen a manner of industrial and human made things by now, but still not a train… he wondered how he'd have to ride it? From the top..? Or do those doors at the side there open… _Stupid machines…_

Before he could continue anymore though, the female, dark navy uniform and brown hair bearing conductor for the train pushed him playfully in, along with the remaining attendees for the train into its #6 carriage.

"What the! Hey! Stop that! Ouch! Woh!!" Knuckles exclaimed at all the 'man-handling', especially by that of a female…

"Ugh…" _How embarrassing was that, I'm glad that blue cocky hedgehog wasn't around to witness that…_ _He'd have a field day with that one!_ Knuckles thought inwardly, as he sat on the floor in a mild sulk, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes firmly closed.

Needless to say, the echidna humanoid was quite an interesting one to look at, by the other humans in the carriage (especially the kids).

One such younger child (of about 6 or so) even said "Aww mummy, look at the lil animal! Can we take him in and keep him? Please?!" whilst gawking and pointing over and over in Knuckles' direction.

And with a cursing mutter under his breath and with his teeth solidly clenched at the embarrassment and lame things he was experiencing today, he could only come to one conclusion.

_It was going to be a LONG train journey… May the Master Emerald help me…_

_

* * *

  
_

**Mystic Ruins Zone/ Entrance To The Mystic Ruins / 6.17 PM**

"Hoo ha! I finally… made… it!" Big the Cat muttered, his voice now laced completely with tiredness. Too much exercise can do that to a person ya know.

He'd now arrived at the Station Square Express station outlet, unfortunately to his disappointment Knuckles wasn't around. _I guess he's already gone onto Station Square…_

"Hmm…?" he uttered at a flicker of green somewhere ahead on the platform.

And to his excited surprise it was none other than Froggy himself! He must've known that I'd be here and he's been waiting for me… Oh what a good mate you are Froggy… Big thought quickly, sighing in relief, before then running forward to grab him in a great big 'cat' hug.

Again he was about to be met with disappointment though in his mad rush of excitement as when the automated computer voice of the 18:00 hr train uttered its immediate departure, Froggy then hopped towards the closing train doors and got inside, vanishing from Big's point of view once more.

"Oh Froggy! No not again… Please… Come back… to me…" Big huffed and puffed as he reached his breaking point, physical and almost mental, before then coming to a stop at where Froggy had just been. He hadn't, needless to say been able to catch a ride on the departing train before it had thundered its way out of the station and to the city pastures afar and in the distance.

"Oh… It looks like I'll have to get the next train now…" Big said, utterly bummed out, as he cushioned himself down on a nearby cream coloured, wooden bench.

"What a long day this has been…" he sighed.

_I just hope that I'll be able to catch up with you soon Froggy, and fix all this mumbo jumbo stuff, and that Knuckles finds his 'Chaos Emeralds' too. Then we can go back to our paradise, and be happy together, this time for always…_ this big but sensitive cat, with a unique calmed perspective of the world, thought to himself as the automated message for the next train echoed throughout the train station.

Not noticing a small red and white sparkling ball of light fly over his head in the direction of the city…

_Going to Station Square, the current crossroads of destinies it seems…_

_

* * *

  
_

XXXXX

**Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream**

XXXXX

* * *

And thus ends the eighth chapter of this story arc!

* * *

**And this marks the end of this chapter and Big's journey for now!**

**[Sorry for the delay but Uni work has really had been snowed under for the last few months! But it's dying down now for Christmas, so its all good…] **

**In this chapter I had Big the Cat venture out into the big world beyond the Mystic Ruins Zone (which is where he has lived a simple and comfortable existence all his life until now). **

**I like him actually for a number of reasons, one being that in a world that is majorly consisted of heroes and villains it is hard to remember sometimes that in fact there are those that are neither. These are the normal folk who live & want simple everyday lives and don't want to get involved (majority wise) in the matters of the heroes VS villains, if they can so help it. **

**And this character type is where Big shines perfectly in my opinion, he's like a newborn child having just ventured out into the world for the very first time (even though he's actually currently 18) and so he can get a perspective on things that no one else can (except maybe Knuckles, who has been in the same kinda boat before, but is naturally far more further developed and experienced in the big old world than Big).**

**I hope I did okay on Big and Knuckles here, although I kinda think that I worsened Knuckles' character abit from his solo outing in chapter two. I think it was too madman and anger ridden perhaps? I mean I know it's understandable why he would be considering but… I think I did overdo it. Oops!**

**One last thing I wanted to mention actually regarding Knuckles in this chapter is his prompt dislike of Big (who bar being an unknown entity and assumed intruder on his island) was… plump and 'dumb'. **

**Yes that was rather racially bias of Knuckles, but you have to remember that he himself was part of a warrior clan of echidnas when he was growing up, and thus most people he knew and associated himself with were expected to be in prime shape and form (in the ancient past). And then of course the last plump person he met was Robotnik and we know how that went… So it's kinda unintentional racial bias on his part because as mentioned before even Knuckles still has to come to grips with the 'new' world, and how things are. **

**Think that's all I wanted to mention in this 'Author's Commentary' yeah.**

**

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'**Chaos Shows His Face' is the next chapter.**

Take care ya'll ***smiley face***


	9. Chaos Shows His Face

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!

Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "**Change The World**" by ARTIST Dream

**CHAPTER 8: Chaos Shows His Face**

_FLASHBACK_

_It shone with an emerald shimmer and was intertwined with deep earthly browns, a perfect statement of the natural beauty of nature, untouched by man. This forest had stood for centuries, providing safe haven for those that dwelled deep within in its secret sanctuaries. But today in the many years after Robotnik's takeover, a fateful meeting on this Planet Mobius was going to change the world forever... _

_All was still and there a sense of calmness in the air. There are seemingly no predators or prey out and about, or at least the fact there is no sounds whatsoever beyond the parting of and footsteps in the foliage, in abundance greatly alludes to it. The two figures press silently onward, though the sense of something stirring occurs to both of them._

"_How far is it now...? I feel like we've been walking forever!", spoke the shorter shadowed figure to the other in panting breathes, whom was clearing their way through the jungle like foliage in his own unique way._

_This taller friend stopped and responded with none a wisecrack in his voice, but instead one of genuine concern for his friend's wellbeing which was further shown when he scooped up his smaller but bigger brainedbro and gave him a piggyback:_

"_Well we have been walking all night to be quite precise and you how much I detest that... But it was a necessity in order to get us this far bro. This isn't West Island no more, were in the big crabmeat and centre of trouble now here."_

"_I know Sonic... I'm sorry for being such a cry-baby. I'm just not used to all this travelling still," said the two tailed cub with slight tears in his eyes now, holding onto the azure hedgehog's shoulders. _

_The hedgehog stopped abruptly and gestured the brown fox cub off of his shoulders and onto the flat earth beneath their feet, "Tails, you have nothing to be sorry for. NONE of us should have to get used to such a life that we've had but that's the way things are... and this is why we continue the fight. To make the world a better place, one day at a time..."said Sonic in one of his rare moments of true sappiness and sentimentality at least in regards to the future that was to come._

_Tails smiled through smiling tears at his elder, his mentor, his hero... and wished evermore deep within his soul that one day he'll become a hero just like him... someday. But Sonic never noticed his admiring look or at least never made comment on it, but instead cocked a goofy grin, a cool one but goofy all the same in his direction and gave him a quick hair ruffle which was followed by the thumbs up. That meant everything was going to be ok..._

_It was only then that through the clearing liquid mist that been tears, that he saw that Sonic's expression had changed, it was no longer a smile but instead an on edge grimace that was shooting right through him, which could only mean one thing... _

_There was trouble afoot. _

"_Tails RUN BUDDY, RUN!" _

_Oh yea, that confirmed it all right..._

_/END FLASHBACK_

**Mystic Ruins Zone/ Tails Workshop / 02:34 AM**

As the band of white light that was the Milky Way stretched across the starlit heavens of darkness, that like a veil covered the southern hemisphere, the Mystic Ruins Zone was in a state of slumber. Only the slight scurry of nocturnal creatures and buzzing of the native fireflies whispered any sound to visitors nearby, but on a lit house atop a hill there was still someone awake, and he was, awake and busy.

True to his prior word and with heavy loyalty burning in his heart Tails 'Miles' Prower was working still on a device that would enable him and his fellow Freedom Fighters to locate the Chaos Emeralds. To anyone not in the 'work zone' that Tails would nearly always lapse into upon starting a piece of work then it was hard to imagine how the clicks, clangs, bangs and sparks that echoed throughout the make-shift lab did not awaken his comrades.

Perhaps they were just used to it and adjusted their approach to sleep accordingly if such a case arose? Who knows, at any rate pretty much everyone was asleep which only left Tails to soak up his works of art, his contributions to the team, by his lonesome.

It was just his way, always had and always will be he so thought.

In his small white hand he grasped a small rectangular object, thick in width but fairly small in height just think of one of those small chunky mobiles, back in the day with the fat screens, heck even better remember the first GAMEBOY portable console, and that is what it resembled. It had a dark green luminous screen that showed off a basic terrain map of the Mystic Ruins region, but at the sides of the screen bore an energy reader that dealt with high energy readings, the kind that had bound them for many years and probably more to come.

But for now it was silent as there was no obvious Chaos Emerald's anywhere in their vicinity, which only prompted the tired young genius to sigh in mild frustration which in turn prompted a yawn and then the ZZZZZs to take over.

XXXXX

A few minutes later another sound calmly echoed throughout the laboratory / cabin hybrid, the flushing of a toilet and natural bodily substances... The flutter of woollen material through an open laboratory door and the patter of a speedsters soles came next, and moments later he was gone, leaving a blanket wrapped Tails, exhausted from his technological conquests, to dream many a dream in silence and warmth.

**Mystic Ruins Zone / Tails Workshop / 08: 30 AM**

There were no groans and protest not many at least from the natural alarm they all possessed that woke the body up at so soon an hour, it was something they were all used to, and had had to grown used to. For the enemy never sleeps, or let his foes sleep in. This was war for you. It was certainly no holiday, no matter the weather.

After standard morning businesses had been dealt with the group had gathered in the living room compartment of the cabin, which had in it a map of the world which was very similar to the one back in Knothole although this one bore many scribbles and smoke marks, at the inevitable cost of Tails experiments and thought processes, it also had three burgundy coloured sofas positioned in a U arc formation in the map's northbound direction.

It was there that one Sally Acorn could see right across the room, past her comrades gazing looks, and through the patio doors and conservatory that lay beyond. It was a nice abode that was for certain, although how the fox had come to cost afford to make the place they had no idea, not even Sonic did, of whom had been a frequent visitor to the place over many years even before that day they'd all met... and helped in its construction.

It was just one of those mysteries around the boy, whom had grown to be an adopted son in ways, but prying came of no good and so she decided to just let be. If he didn't want to allude to such things then let him, he was still only a young boy and they all had their secrets to keep. If need be then he'd fill them in and let them in when he was ready, but he would always remain her cherished nephew in heart and mind.

A quietening hush from the ever smooth talking Antoine cut the playful batter between the brothers in arms and it was now time to debrief them on all that she and Nicole had found out so far regarding Robotnik's presence here and nearby. Even after all this time, and in front of friends and comrades for goodness sake; she still had that lump in her throat before making a formal speech. It came from the not knowing condition and fear of failure she told herself, from a childhood long gone in where she'd had had vigorous training ironically to prepare herself for such matters, at least in the art of ruling a kingdom as the Princess of Acorn.

There were no such lessons in commanding and leading a war front as such, and it was the harsh reality of that which they had gone through and which lay ahead that came to mind before most formal speeches like this.

_Just take in that cleansing breath of air Sally..._ her mind resonated. _And then all will be well._

She did that, and now the hard part was over she did what came naturally to her.

"Yesterday we all arrived in Station Square, the capital of the Overlander's humans and were treated to an uncanny welcome. These guys have obviously not been in major contact with mobian kind for a long time, but they were not hostile to us, which is all the better for us." And this prompted Antoine to muffle a quiet but auditable 'yea right' from the back, which in turn prompted a swift elbow jab from Bunnie in the ribs, with her metallic arm ouch!, and thus he soon shut up un-beware of Sonic and Tails' childish giggles at his expense further ahead...

"As I was saying..." Sally began again, recovering from her disgruntled sigh.

"Unlike a certain dictator, the inhabitants of Station Square were not immediately prone to hostility towards us, and so after we split up me and NICOLE began talking amongst the populace and here is what we found out:"

She flipped open NICOLE, who was a bigger yet still slim version of the 'gameboy' device that Tails had christened only hours before, and told her to open up file499station square.png which was then projected like some star trek hologram in front of them all. It was unsurprisingly a map of the city with certain high lightened points here and there, which the formidable duo of Sally and NICOLE now explained.

The first red X mark she pointed out was labelled M1, and it was situated to the central part of the city and near to another point called P1. She explained that M1 was where Sonic had encountered the water monster, and thus the significance of the letter M. And this took place outside the President's Emissary, whom was the one who kept order and chaos in the city and was the people's appointed leader in their democracy led system.

"Now why dare we say was this mysterious creature so close to the main office of this capital's leader? Was there going to be an attack on his life and if so then be who? Was Sonic's and our presence in the city of any considerable factor in this monster's movements?" Sally spoke, with a fine steel edge in her voice, confident and inspiring.

"Perhaps it was just some native of the sewer system of the place Sally girl?" pumped Bunnie from the back-mid row of the sofa assembly. "Goodness knows we've never seen such a thing, as Sonic described. It went down the drains after all following their fist de cuffs!" she exclaimed with some joyful battle pride and almost knocking the poor French coyote to the side of her out for the count with her waving jousting arms.

"Hmm... That's certainly a possibility Bunnie. It definitely didn't have Robotnik creation spewed all over it, did it Sonic?" Sally coaxed to the blue wonder, of who still had the mental capacity of an 8 year old she swore... He hadn't been listening much, if at all, _again_ her mind roared.

But grumble of the mind's beast was soon quietened when she got an unexpected and prompt reply from the blue hog, "Yea it definitely was no robot organism that's for sure. It was a pure liquid water entity, which was fast and pretty darn powerful. A definite no-no for a Robotnik creation if you ask me..." he finished with a boasting tell tale grin, lying back coolly with his arms behind his head.

"I can see what you mean," Sally begrudgingly agreed, being tray careful not to enlarge an already over confidant giant hog head with her words, so she spoke them slowly but firmly.

She resumed her strong posed stance and pointed out and explained the last remaining marked point on the Station Square grid map.

"This one, G1 stands for G.U.N. HQ which is the military police force that protects the city at the whim of President, whose name alludes me right now... But from NICOLE's probing the security systems they use are outstanding..."

"They were indeed, Sally. Their technology is surprisingly hi-tech and resistant to external technology like me for such an isolated species. It boggles the mind, as you call it," NICOLE hummed and joked to all present. But although it was amazing, it was a little bit worrying, especially if Robotnik himself ever came to possess it...

XXXXX

"... And so from that unfortunate failed probing and from talking with the general populace in the main city, we're pretty sure that no one knows who Robotnik is or that the government they have is in alliance with him in anyway," Sally stated with a quiet relief in her voice, although this was soon to pass.

"So this is a Robotnik free zone...?" Tails asked with a quiver in his voice, with eyes that bore shock and awe upon this revelation of sorts, as only a small child does.

"It does indeed seem that way Tails," She replied back with a smile, _at least for now..._

"This doesn't mean that old egghead won't come this way and try to seize control from the President and take over though..." a clear and loud voice from the doorway said. And in stepped the sole oversleeping member, the walrus tech guy by the name of Rotor, surprising Sonic in good way in using one of his own nicknames for Robotnik.

"Yo, good call on the Robuttnik nickname Rotor!" Sonic exclaimed erratically, highfiving his bud as he came to sit down in-between him and Tails.

Dismissing the immature antics of typical males minus Antoine Sally began to take in all too clearly the reality of what Rotor had suggested. Warfare between them and him would only worsen, and with NICOLE rendered and locked out of his computer systems; they would be sitting ducks for whatever trap Robotnik sprung at them back in Robotropolis. Heck he could even locate Knothole with such technology...

A shiver coursed through her veins and echoed into her very soul, that horrible outcome could **never** happen. Or else they would be finished, and so would Knothole.

Whatever was going on here with the monster and any possible Robotnik agendas they would have to put a stop to as soon as possible. She just hoped this wasn't all a ruse to...

"Rotor brings up a great point guys, and this could explain the monster's movements and motives for being in the city. He _may_ have something to do with Robotnik or he may not, but whatever it is it is dangerous and since we're here trying to find the Chaos Emeralds, we may as well have our little dance with danger shall we not?" Sally said her confidence in the face of danger and excitement for adventure akin to a certain hedgehog's, but not as much, so she said ringing true through her voice and slight grin on her face.

It was an exhilarating feeling adventures were, and always had been, a risk yes, but she had confidence in herself and in her friends that they _could do this_. She wouldn't be a good leader if she didn't have her doubts or trust in her team's abilities would she now?

This is why she liked being on top of things and try as she may she liked to stay ahead of the game, and that's why the combined skills and efforts of NICOLE, Tails and Rotor were of key importance to her stratagem. Not that Antoine, Bunnie and Sonic were brainless or unhelpful in strategy meetings, far from the truth, it was always good to have more than one perspective on any given circumstance especially in warring times such as these but they were more of a front line defence and attack group. That homed in on their natural physical skills on the battlefield well maybe not completely for Antoine, yet... but there was always time to smoothen some edges right?.

Rotor, I and NICOLE had analysed what they had found out regarding the city and the monster to the best of their ability but she had sent off Tails to develop a Chaos Emerald radar with which to find them with. And with all seven in hand they may have a chance against this monster and the next of Robotnik's...

She didn't have time to finish her mind's unspoken sentence as a loud beeping sound suddenly echoed throughout the cabin, and it was coming from Tails' Chaos Emerald Radar which was flashing green hues onto the young lad's eyes and prompting such erratic movement from the others who knew what this too meant.

It meant that a Chaos Emerald was nearby...

"It's coming from the west, and it's on the move Aunt Sally!" Tails exclaimed in a hurry, fiddling with the buttons of the device to pinpoint even clearer the rogue emerald's whereabouts.

"Then we must race it and claim it guys, so off we go!" Sally boomed, in a playful tone of voice as she grinned at them all in turn, and pointed to the door.

And off they went together into the unknown, and into double trouble...

_FLASHBACK_

_South Island / The Great Forest / 07: 28 AM 3Years Ago_

_He grabbed hold of Sonic's hand in quick haste and did as he were told, and the pair began to run, strafing and ducking to avoid the full blunt of the whipping tree branches ahead and the hidden root undergrowths. For some it would have been a nice bout of an adrenaline, but for a young child like Tails, all that coursed through him at this second was fear._

_Had they been found out or worse still had they been tracked all this way?_

_He began to utter some words, ones that would make clear in his mind what was happening, but all that came out was a whisper of air, lost on the trailing wind._

_For now he thought, I should concentrate on keeping up and not falling behind we don't want to trip up and be taken down from whatever is chasing us do we now?, his logical brain lobe echoed. For now questions would have to be taken back in reserve, and visualisation of an escape route ahead and of running would have to take priority._

_Focusing with his clear azure eyes he could see Sonic just up in front, his sneakers all but a blur as he tore through the forest's undergrowth, a grimaced look written all over his face, one of guilt? Or of deep thought? Maybe both, Tails thought. He didn't look happy with how things were panning out, nor with whatever was behind them he so assumed._

_He was still surprised to this day that his arm didn't just snap off and flutter into the air whenever he held on to Sonic like this, rocketing at a near super sonic speed; he'd always theorised that his twin tails allowed such a constant momentum between the two that helped that dreaded possibility from coming true. Even so, his arm was aching abit now all the same, thoughts and wishes that he could keep up with his blue hero of his own accord were just beginning to surface when a sudden jerk tore the world out from under his feet._

_They had stopped. _

_After taking a few moments to adjust to normal time and stillness, Tails looked around to see where they had stopped, in the hope that it would call out a meaning behind their sudden haste and then abrupt halt. The first thing that he noticed was that it was an open space, in fact it was a clearing of some kinds, the sunlight of the new borne day was coursing through the tree upper growth it was like a jungle canopy but not at the same time even more now, creating a spider web of light across the open space and distorting the pairs shadows into faint spiral like shapes. At first glance it looked like some weird phenomenon of dancing light, but then with the sudden flex of movement from Sonic himself, the mind's eye caught up and revealed itself as nothing but a complex yet natural distortion of light coming into the forest and from their own physical presences too.so much for that little bout of magic, thought Tails. Then again such things weren't exactly likely to happen here, were they...?_

"_Phew... I think we lost them buddy. You can rest easy now, ok?" the blue hog said, panting and getting back his own breath in the meanwhile. The red flush that had been present in his cream coloured cheeks was beginning to sub side now Tails noticed, although his eyes still flickered here and there, a foreign glint of fear shone through them. Something really spooked him out Tails thought, with both concern and amazement at his friend. I thought heroes never get scared...just what could have resulted in such a reaction...?_

"_Sonic... what was-" the fox began, before being cut off._

"_I'm sorry for that back there bro... But those things out there... I hoped to never see them again and I... panicked I guess," The blue hog said sincerely, with a small hint of embarrassment on his face which he was trying to hide, bearing a sombre sad smile as well._

"_No need to worry Sonic... And I don't know what they were but we're away from them now right...?" the kitsune responded with delicate procession and warming thoughtfulness, having already grasped the older concept of letting others have their own personal space and not to push such issues should they not want to discuss them. He just doesn't want to bug me with whatever's on his mind that's all, he concluded simply._

_However smart he may be at his current age, Tails was still a tad naive to the world and to what heroism really was, and the consequences of such a life. _

_And despite his courtesy at letting the issue die vocally, his mind still was trying to picture what could make Sonic, his best friend for many years now, scared like that in a way he'd never seen before... _

_BAM! BAM! BAM! _

_The burning blasts toasted patches of earth around their feet, and it was then upon looking up that Tails saw the unimaginable behemoths that had startled Sonic so bad, terrors that were not at native to West Island but were it seemed to this region, South Island._

_He could put no them to the towering robots, but for those in the know they were called Swatbots, and their steadied guns and omniscience looking eyes told him and Sonic that they meant business._

"_Oh crap..." moaned the blue hedgehog, taking a tense battle stance, trying hard as he may to keep Tails behind him._

_So these guys must his main foot soldiers after all then, Sonic thought with a growing tremble in his legs and weight in his stomach. _

_I couldn't stop them before... back then... but can I stop them now, after all this time and training?_

_And as the thuds of their footsteps began, the blue hero to be only thought one thing before preparing his honed spin dash technique:_

_I better bloody be, or Tails and I are finished. _

_/END FLASHBACK _

**Mystic Ruins Zone / Outside of Tails Workshop / 08: 54 AM**

The group soon assembled on the circular plateau outside Tail's Workshop, the whole dark greens and browns of the surrounding jungle remaining them that a drawn out battle here would not be at all beneficial to the environment, to the cabin on the hill nor to the city whose railway system comes through here up and above on a sky laden rail road track anyway. NICOLE and Sally were at the front and scouting the area for the oncoming chaos emerald, with the rest dispersing along the flat cliff face, ready for any sprung back attacks.

Sally was walking about in slight circles now, her left hand ruffling through the back of her hair as an unconscious reaction in order to settle and excuse her mounting confusion. This was you see due to the tracking devices of NICOLE, which stated that the chaos emerald was supposed to right where they were now, but she couldn't see it, and nor could anyone else as they looked just as headless a chicken as she felt.

And just before her own mind clicked, serving to put a quick end to whatever leader doubt her subconscious was about to wring out and lay high and dry on the surface of her mind, did Tails vocalise what it meant to them all, slight panic woven in his pre-teen voice.

"The Chaos Emerald is above us guys, its ABOVE US!" he shouted, his finger pointing upwards into the white and grey smudges of cloud drifting calmly above their position.

The clouds overhead seemed to darken in this moment and the roar of an engine, one that clucked in and out of sync every so often, then became known to the gang, and a very familiar one at that...

"Ha, ha, ha... If it isn't the pin cushion and all his furry friends! Are you out on a holiday or something? Cos you all look like you need one!" boomed the mad scientist with sarcastic glee, whose presence a minute or two ago would've startled them slightly but now in the art of their quick realisation, Robotnik's random appearance was just plain annoying...

_But at least we'll get some answers now_, Sally and Sonic were thinking, _he always likes to talk_ they all groaned inwardly...

"Oh look it's a giant talking egg – a rotten stench ridden one at that..." Sonic joked, holding his right hand over his nose to further play out the humorous act at his foe's expense.

"You tell that there son of a bitch what for sugah hog!" Bunnie exclaimed, tensing her metallic limbs in ready for battle.

"SILENCE! I, the greatest scientific genius in the world shall not be joked about... Not when I have such big plans being carried out in your favour..." he rebutted with an angry snarl, descending into a smile of cackling amusement as he eyed each of the Freedom Fighters in turn. _Oh this will be absolutely delicious_, he thought with a maddening hunger as dreamt images of their slaughtering played back in his mind.

XXXXX

"What are you up to this time Robotnik? Cos I'm warning you now... we will make our last stand here if need be but whatever it is that you're digging up we will stop you so why don't you just give-", Sally began, assuming an accusing tone and martial arts like pose.

"Digging up? Oh my... you downplay my talents dear Princess, I've already _dug up_ what I needed. So why don't you and your rapid furry mob ride on home, play war games and bugger off?" Robotnik said, shrugging off Sally's 'warning' as though a fly had declared war against him, in an increasingly smartass yet angry tone.

Tails was thinking that despite all of his aunt's best efforts to make Robotnik talk, that he could still see somehow, heck he could _sense _it, that the mad scientists' eyes must have been simple bulging by now. Though not any one of them had ever seen his eyes...

The gasps at the doctor's well played ace echoed through the group well everyone other than Sonic, who just kept silent. The hog's fists clearly tightened nevertheless, much to the obliviousness of his surrounding comrades.

"Damn you Robotnik..." Sally growled, with darkening eyes, much like a woman scorned. She let herself back down, this time, and waited with silent nerves as to what this madman may have unleashed from its earth bound grave...

"So which of the Chaos Emeralds do you have, Robotnik? The yellow one maybe? Or perhaps the blue one? Or maybe the-", Tails had put forward confidently, much to the surprise of them all over the kid's openness and guts in the wake of such idiotic danger. He'd actually even stepped forward towards Robotnik, Sally realised, which led the team leader and motherly nature in her to debacle over whether to let him continue or pull him back...?

The slight cold touch of an arm on hers stopped her impulse to rush forward, and she didn't need to look to her side to know that Bunnie was right, that Tails should start to make his own decisions, and make his own mistakes and victories, especially if he were to remain a part of this team and if he was to grow up into a stronger person.

She had to let him have that chance to prove himself now, despite the risks...

_And he has us, all of us, behind him to protect him should anything go wrong. Everything will be fine_, she concluded and let the world come back to her, the focus in her eyes and sound in her ears, and then time, seemingly frozen before, continued its inevitable forward path.

"It you must know you little runt... it's the Purple Chaos Emerald," the doctor said with mild distaste at the attitude of the naive and so called innocent fox child below him. _If this is the best brains, other than that old farted walrus, that they can muster then they're screwed_.

And as if on cue for a show and tell, Robotnik whipped out the emerald in question and held it firmly in the palm of his hand, the purple hues radiating and sparkling in the Sun' mid morning light. It was like a small burning sun, which would show even the slowest of thinkers in due course that the powers the gem contained were unimaginably massive, godly even to those in the know, like our heroes and their foe here...

"... and I'm going to get all of them and when I do..." the doctor continued, talking as though he were just conversing with his own self, his hand supporting his chin which bore a crooked smile in a tone of voice which just oozed venom and superiority.

"You'll what egg-head? ...Make some smelly tea cosy out of them all over the weekend?" Sonic shouted, as though he was further away than he actually was, trying evermore to make the dictator explode partly because of the laugh he out of it, but also to bestow some control over his nemesis.

XXXXX

"That's enough Sonic... ", Sally quietly said as she walked carefully within the hedgehog's ear shot, "There's no need to make him even more insane than he already is, we need to find out what he has and what his plans are. Save the jokes for later, ok?" she concluded with a firm 'no buts, that's the end of it' tone of finality.

Sonic understood, and nodded his head before turning back to the unfolding events, eyes ever preening the area, much like Bunnie had been the entire time, for any robot squadrons hiding in the wings.

He didn't see any, and that unnerved him abit.

If Robotnik really had come alone then whatever he had gained must've been... especially dangerous. What could it be...?

The whole gang looked tense now, as though they'd come to the same conclusion. Group telepathy or pure instinct he didn't know, but they wouldn't have to wonder much longer...

"Look at all you fools, quivering with fear. Fear of the unknown. Well you don't know what true fear is into you've looked deep into the dwellings of darkness and your own hearts!-" Robotnik roared at them with growing intensity, booming like an extreme preacher or a man possessed, spitting venom at them and great pride apparent within the voice.

"Come Chaos, I summon you! Destroy these fifthly bunch of weaklings!" he continued, like someone who holds all the cards and smugly broadcasts it at the ample moment where all the players fall into the trap like moths are attracted to light in the darkness, before they get burned and die. And during this he was completely unaware of the heightened tension and confusion beginning to spring up on the gang's faces, and the frantic scouting of the area for the source of the inevitable attack. But they wouldn't see this one coming, unfortunately for them.

The first wave hit them like several intense electric shots, running through their nervous system from the brain and over the body, making them all scream out loud for dear life and fall to the earthly floor.

To Bunnie, in her unfortunate metallic getup still unpolished as far as design and resistances was took the full blunt of the assault, and fall unconscious right into Antoine's lap and again hitting him with a wild elbow, and knocking him out. Later on when evening fell, she would later confide in Sally that it felt as though she were melting in hot water and the air ceased to be, no longer an element to breathe but one to crush the remaining life out of her.

She would also remind Rotor that she really needed 'spark proof' attachments...

To the rest of the assembled group, the mutual pain was much the same at first but then escalated until it felt as though something or someone was peeling back the very layers of their memories, of their hearts, searching... for darkness... for fears... absolute soul crushing fears... to feed upon.

Flashes before their eyes, visions of both past and future possibilities spiralling to and fro in their heads, and for those few minutes, they weren't on Planet Mobius anymore, in a region called the Mystic Ruins, they were inside their heads and being eaten up, spat upon and skewered over and over by their worse kept fears and dreams, hidden from all but them.

XXXXX

A shiny liquid coursing through... expanding and rupturing all that lies within... covering thine self whole... destroying all strains of self... into a cold soulless husk... forevermore...

Busy... busy... busy... no time... kids playing outside far away... prying eyes... prying arms... darkness... swirling vortexes... incoherent whisperings... silence... innocence lost... screams in the dark... hardened tears... calculations... a misty trail... a fiery sky...

A shunning look... disappointed eyes... childish mocking... the far away blade... no explanation as to why... the voice is gone... all is silent... alone and apart... the direction is lost... thy purpose is beyond reach... this is the... warriors... plight... alone... friends... where aren't... thou... stomping sounds... slashes in the darkness... a droning hum...

Drowning... in darkness... watery hands wrapped around the throat... the abyss... nothingness... silence... giant blue behemoths... the figure dragged into the distance... time runs too fast... time runs too slow... a blaze... charred bodies... soiled blood... on the hands... bleeding into the soil... metallic husks... red eyes prying in the darkness... loneliness...

An icy wind... a barren wasteland... the slippery and slimy touch... sharp fangs in the darkness... eclipse of the sun... echoing screams... under the cover of night... the last fleeting looks... the loosing of paws... into the unknown seas...

Prying fingers... prying eyes in the darkness... clashing... colliding... another time... scorned names... pointing fingers... diverted eyes... two figures lost in the mist... a lone peak... a blue blur... stumbling... falling behind... through the mist... tears of joy... tears of sorrow...

After a seemingly endless cycle of torture the visions and voices abruptly stopped, the dream constructed worlds faded away and a spasming jerk brought them to reality, and it'd felt akin to a light having been switched off in their head the light being conscious thought and brain usage and then back on again. Whatever demon had been playing around with their minds apparently had left them be, having fulfilled his or her fair share of glorious torture.

XXXXX

The stitching of reality came back to them in a fast blur of grey and white blocks, slowly turning into coloured ones, as though it were the picture on a TV set being constructed in real time slow motion before being hit by a fast forward button, and then everything was clear once more.

_Ugh... man that's gonna leave one killer headache later on_, groaned the first awaking victim of the psychic wave assault. It seemed that no matter how much brain matter Sally thought he may or may not have lacked, he did have it seemed a rather impenetrable big head. And even before his visual realisation of the world kicked back into high gear he had already figured out just why this had felt so familiar, as amplified to the max as it had been; and that _scared_ him. And this blue hedgehog hardly ever got scared, but this monster, the one now again in front of him, had dug deep into his head and he didn't like that at all. Not at all...

He looked worryingly around to quicken qualm a rising feeling of dread at what may have happened to his friends, but thankfully they were all beginning to stir. And the physical strain of the assault at least was immediately clear from their faces, confused and angered, bulging lines edged across Bunnie and Sally's features, with cold sweat drops falling across the shrunken faces of the other three. A warm splash upon his nose confirmed that he as well had been sweating juice, cold comforts he suspected that his body had made in order to ward off his rising inner anger at the horrible probing of his mind. Even that or it really was the fear... and the second it probably was, though Sonic would never freely admit it.

Chaos was crouched down on the earthy plain, its head swerving from side to side, it's alien green mesmerising eyes seemingly looking at all of them at once, taking in all of them and contemplating how best to tear them apart. To Sonic it'd looked like something out of a low budget special effects film but having rumbled with the creature before, he suddenly came to choke and refute that statement very quickly. This 'Chaos' was dangerous, and it looked _hungry, _but for what Sonic didn't want to know...

Sonic was about to utter a stern warning to the rest when Robotnik, having turned off any attention or interest of the fallen group, had swivelled around in his Egg Mobile and faced Chaos face on, his greedy grasp on the purple emerald slipping...

"Time for you to come get one of your daily super vitamins, Chaos... Ha, ha, ha..." barked the face smitten scientist, as he threw the emerald into the mouth of the water monster who crooned its head back abit and swallowed it whole with the ease, like a snake does with large eggs although with much greater speed and elegance.

Chaos transformed before their eyes with a great flash of white and purple which lasted simply seconds before dying down and revealing a new form from the beast that they hadn't yet seen.

Tails deducted the changes obvious and not with a quick analytical glace, the first notion was obvious to them all, Chaos had become visibly taller by a couple of inches and had an even wider range with its bodies growth changes. It also looked just plain nastier and pissed off, which the slightly stronger incoherent humming in the air _or was it just in their own heads?_ seemed to prove.

Chaos' arms were more bulky than before and now had a line of a thin bone like material running up it which lead to a purple circular disc that resembled he assumed the form of the emerald whose energies he'd just absorbed with flawless ease. That strain of thought also unnerved him, _just how had this creature catalysed the emerald down into a suitable substance to boost its own powers?_

"Damn it..." Sonic cursed under his breath "Guys this is the monster I fought the other day, so best we be on our guard." He continued wearily, before then pointing at Robotnik with hardened impenetrable eyes "Especially if old egg-breath is behind this Chaos creep."

"Oh yes!" pumped up the scientist in question in his most chilling mad scientist impressionable voice, still ignoring Sonic and co as though they'd been casted off to another dimension or something. "It's just as the stone tablets predicted-" he continued, before turning to face them all directly, a grin now plastered onto his ugly features "And for you brainless fools that translates as: Chaos' strength increases every time he is fed a Chaos Emerald and with all of them, he will be invincible and work for me! Ha, ha, ha, ha..."

He let one gloved hands run through the slimy cocoon shaped head of Chaos, stroking him as though he were but a pet dog although a more messier and slimy one just to touch. If the creature's weird fear inducing / brainwave attack had any effect on Robotnik, Sonic and the others individually couldn't catch a trace of it as he continued to praise the monster, of who just stood there and took it with no emotion at all embedded within its deep green eyes.

With a slight scowl the egg shaped head turned a few degrees in the direction of the city ahead "...And together Chaos and I shall destroy that ungrateful city... and Station Square will be reduced to ruins, ready for construction of a new outpost for my empire and then this corner of Mobius will be MINE!"

The gang up and ready now to take on the crazed man and his watery beast, and to send the latter back into the underworld from whence it came.

"Your 'Chaos' may have gone match to match with Sonic but-" Sally began, fierce determination written all over her strong facial features, her eyes an icy blue and ready for battle.

"Oh man... Way to ruin my rep Sal." Sonic moaned quietly to himself, hand slapping himself in the face as he spoke like the immature teen he was.

"-against all of us you and that don't stand a chance in hell!" she finished, a prideful smirk edged on her lips as she stared down the enemy from her vocal insult.

"My, my... daddy raised his little princess well didn't he? Like the marionette soldier he crafted you to be, the one that is headstrong and stupid till they met their maker. Ha, ha, ha..." Robotnik snidely replied, hoping to use the emotional parental strings in people to cause an unemotional unbalance and thus the fall of her comrades to Chaos at her own mistake. The very thought was starting to make him insanely giddy again, and that would have to be saved for smacking his worthless nephew about for his inevitable mistakes later on he promised himself.

"You're one to talk you MONSTER! You killed my father and made me, all of us, into who we are now... And for ruining all of our lives, as well as many more over Mobius we will defeat you... starting now." shouted the normally headstrong princess and tactician, and with renewed enrage over her missing father she gestured to everyone else that now was the time for battle. Talking was over.

Robotnik's Egg Mobile rocketed above the decided battle arena below, only ushering one loud and clear instruct to Chaos below before he whizzed fast and head on into the huge cloud cover ahead.

"Feeding time is over Chaos, now its time for you to rip the Freedom Fighters before you limb from limb. I'm sure they'll be more than a satisfactory dessert to the 6 other Chaos Emeralds you will receive in due course. Farewell you meddlesome fools!"

_FLASHBACK _

_South Island / The Great Forest / 07: 50 AM 3Years Ago_

_Two, three and then four trees fall down in simple precision, cut down by the clear swiping arcs of one simple, bulky dark blue metal arm, for these were Swatbots and they were the foot soldiers of Robotnik's army. And today they were primed to kill, if need be. _

_Following Sonic's bold move to stay put and fight, the Swatbots red sensory eye vision had no problem in finally picking up their heat signature(s), and thus the games began as Robotnik himself would probably have said, having cornered two traitorous rats. _

"_Surrender wanted felons, for you are under citizen arrest for opposing Lord Robotnik!"__ the blue behemoths uttered in their clear yet monotone voices at the blue hedgehog and his little sidekick, a brown fox cub with two tails._

"_Subject scanning initializing__..." droned the one kneeling in front of the other._

"_**Subject One**__... Species: __**Hedgehog...**__ Name: __**Sonic... **__Place of Origin: __**Emerald Hill Zone, West Island...**__ Recorded Crimes: __**Fighting against Lord Robotnik's rule in the West Island Region...**__ Threat Level: __**Low...**__"__ the commanding Swatbot trooper droned on, succeeding only in making Sonic yawn and chuckle at past victories against Robotnik played over in his head. And I was afraid of these guys...? This was the only conscious thought on his mind currently, and one that grew more amusing with every passing second. Boy were these guys in for a surprise, and with that he cocked his cocky grin. _

"_**Subject Two**__... Species: __**Fox...**__ Name: __**Tails 'Miles' Prower ... **__Place of Origin: __**Unknown...**__ Recorded Crimes: __**Fighting against Lord Robotnik's rule in the West Island Region...**__ Threat Level: __**None...**__"__ the Swatbot ended on, before the robotic twosome began to run at Sonic and Tails head on, blasters at the ready._

"_Hey!" Tails exclaimed at his announced 'Threat Level' and was about to launch into a childish and deadly manoeuvre, which was to attack the robots head on without a plan, but Sonic pulled him back just in time._

_Sonic then whispered a plan of action in his little bro's ear, who nodded in understanding and then the two were off..._

"_Let's how 'low' a threat I am when your both shish kebab Swatbots!" Sonic shouted loudly, grinding his teeth in mild frustration, as he then prepared his honed spin dash attack._

_It was an attack he had learnt a little while before his and Tails' West Island cross country adventure, and one that he had polished during their battles against Robotnik and his minions over there. As for where he had actually learnt it, that was a closely guarded secret of his own._

_To unleash it he jumped into the air so that he airborne and above the Swatbots who were now firing wildly at him, and missing all the while, and this was because it offered great momentum when it came down to the climatic crunch of the attack. It took only seconds for the blue hedgehog to curl up and completely change form, and Sonic was spinning so fast that to the naked eye he was nothing but a blue buzz saw of razor sharp spikes._

_In time Tails would come to truly understand how it, and many more things in the world were put together and how they worked, but for now it still wowed him and he hoped that one of these days that Sonic could teach him it too..._

_And speaking of Tails... as the blurry buzz saw sliced sideways through the first trooper and then horizontally down the remaining one, all with the ease of a knife through hot butter, the blue hog pushed himself off of the falling robot body and reached his hands upwards and out._

_Sonic caught onto Tails' hands with clear precision, and who had yet again pulled another cool deal in the art of his well trained airborne hover and flight manoeuvre. It had certainly helped the both of them out of a few jams, particularly in that Chemical Plant place... Sonic reminisced, with shivers running over his flesh, remembering the heavy, smelly and acidic chemical mack that'd almost claimed them both._

_Still it didn't hurt to have some brotherly fun with it now and again he thought with a laugh, having now have felt no danger from the Swatbots in question. It wasn't like Tails was in any real danger... was it?_

"_That was close one eh Sonic?"Tails remarked, a little out of breath, as he hovered the two of them down close enough to ground level so that Sonic could hop on down and land on his two cat like feet, and allow him time to take his own time in coming down._

_It also gave him time to get over the nightmarish situation they'd just come out on top on, man those Swatbots were really quite scary he thought with a cold mental shiver. I'll definitely have to train up some stronger attacks so that I can help out next time..._

_And it was during one of Sonic's daily leg stretching exercises that Tails remembered one of the questions that had been floating through his mind before the chase had begun, like what hours ago? It'd certainly felt that way at least to his younger mind."So just how far away are we from your secret hideaway Sonic? I don't think we should stay put here for much longer..." the fox asked slowly but surely, his eyes shining blue with sincerity and affection._

"_Soon buddy. Soon." was the simple and short reply. _

_The god's honest truth was that Sonic had __**no idea**__ where they were going; for there was no secret hideaway that his mysterious and never mentioned relatives had left for him should he need it. He just knew that they couldn't stay on West Island forever, it just wasn't as safe anymore, and deep down he knew that alone he and Tails couldn't free the place of evil's suffocating fingers. No, they had to move on and continue the fight anew, and grow stronger, maybe even find some more allies..._

_He took a quiet gulp as he waved Tails on to follow him again through the twisty forest and with the slight fear of hopelessness slowly gripping his heart, the forest closed around him and grew darker. __And add that to the spooked and tiring kid walking as best as he could beside him, his twin tails flapping around with every step, and the deepening ankle-deep grass, and Sonic was far from a happy camper. Up ahead he spotted a clearing and grabbing Tails' right hand and bringing him in even tighter, they ran towards it._

_The clearing seemed to glow, a strange blue light piercing the earthly colours around, as he squinted at it. And it was then that their ears primed in onto a loud chorus of noise(s) coming from ahead of them, and very familiar ones at that which then built into a crescendo. The noise(s) then stopped suddenly and echoed its way out of their skull's as they finally stepped into clearing..._

_And both of them froze._

_What seemed like thousands of red eyes held the two in place, like the many facets of an insects' eyes, and they were smiling coldly at the duo, their caught prey._

"_Dammit... so this is why those two back there took their merry time to get to us-", Sonic spoke, breaking the silence that surrounded them all like cold winter frost, whilst staring with tensed eyes, and truthful ones filled with real fear, at Tails._

"_They went and got some backup, a damn lot of it as well..." he finished as the pack of blue metallic beasts began to encircle and entrap them._

_And for once the true blue and cool headed hedgehog was out of ideas._

_/END FLASHBACK_

**Mystic Ruins Zone / Outside of Tails Workshop / 09: 23 AM**

As the Freedom Fighters scattered and honed their positions, they'd begun to feel the creeping sensation prickling under their skin again, what they now called Chaos' fear effect'. They didn't notice that their target was no longer there...

Catching the ground group by surprise, Chaos appeared behind them, reformed out of his evasive puddle form. He raised his right hand and drew it into a clawed fist and slashed at the four nearest warriors: Sally, Bunnie, Antoine and Sonic. They quickly scattered as Bunnie grabbed Antoine and leapt high into the air whilst Sonic grabbed Sally Moon to move her out of from harm's way.

Tails at that moment was hovering with his twin tails above them as air support, and trying to think of a way to attack the creature, _I mean just how did you fight a monster made up near entirely of water anyway?_

"This thing's fear inducing thing really gives me the creeps," the blonde-haired rabbit girl shuddered. "I mean really... it's like something out of a horror movie."

"Too right ma dame... The things it dug up in my... in our heads were just unacceptable!" Antoine groaned seemingly to the heavens.

Sally frowned. "I know what you mean guys but we need to get a grip here, or we'll become this thing's playmates till the end of time. Robotnik would then finally have control of everything, and I don't, I won't, see that happen, com padre?" she said, turning to them, looking them dead in the eyes.

"Hey, don't leave me out of the team motivation meeting Sal!" piped up a certain blue hedgehog.

"Oh I didn't forget you Sonic..." she began. "We just all know that you have buckets of confidence in yourself, so I didn't think you'd need this." she smirked.

"Hehe, fair enough Sal... fair enough," he replied with a wink, before the four turned their bodies and minds back to Chaos, whose eyes were shifting to and fro from them all now, anticipating, and waiting for the next move from whoever dared throw it.

The sudden sprint of blue boots running across the cliff plain broke the tension, but Sally was about to learn the hard way that the majority of physical attacks on this creature were just simply not blessed to work, and so in her sleek attempts to smack its jaw around some, she was instead surprised to find that half of her leg had gotten stuck in the creatures head, and so close to the eyes of the beast itself. That icy cold look as brief as it was, reminded Sally of something, a familiar childhood emotion, they were the look of jealousy with a slice of anger?

Before she could contemplate any reasoning as to why the creature had such a mixture of strong emotions coursing through it, heck the fact it had such human emotions at all as well as the 'fear effect' it oozed out in buckets, Chaos grabbed her torso and legs with both hands and throw her violently to the ground with an 'Ugh' sounding thud.

Even through the pain and aches of one or two bruised muscles & bones, as well as the brain slicing headache and blurry visions she'd begun to experience even more vividly in hr close proximity to the creature, she still analysed that all they'd seen so far of the creature was more than enough to consider Chaos a definite anomaly of Planet Mobius. One that Robotnik had somehow found out about and let loose.

So many mysteries... and these brief tangling and horrifying moments Sally had was all it took for Rotor to come to the same conclusions that she had begun to wrung out in her heightened state of mind. Things that needed further analysis and testing that was for sure...

All he knew now for sure was that close proximity with the creature called Chaos only served to heighten the body's own sense of paranoia, as well as the fear effect that pried open fears and memories, good and bad to the surface, and twisting them.

Antoine and Bunnie looked at each with a firm understanding glance, nodded, and then set off in opposite directions, and attempting to bring back of piece of victory to their side by doing a double team act. And this was despite Antoine's wielding sword a skill he was still rather a klutz in with kind regards, the distracting more like whimpering talent of Antoine in the face of grave danger whilst Bunnie took it on herself to bring an ass kicking stomp down to the enemy at hand.

Even so, what happened next startled everyone there other than Chaos, but you knew that already didn't you?, for you see... the dubbed 'fear effect' worked a super magnet on Antoine's mental state...

"KEEP AWAY FROM ME YOU FOUL, IMBẺCILE D'A BEAST!" screamed the increasingly agitated coyote, his eyes wide and bulging, and with sweat pouring down his face, his teeth chattering as Chaos loomed closer and closer to this amusing and jelly shaking alike prey. Oh and he was also slashing wildly in front of him prompting everyone to step a little bit backwards than they had been before,

Yes Antoine started to go a little more bonkers than usual, Sonic would mention later, over and over to the one in question.

And if Bunnie thought this unexpected distraction was to be her luck than she was in for another story, for as got ready to smack her two metallic arms through the head and small brain of Chaos he then split into water molecules and rained to the ground, and reformed a couple of feet away.

"Get on back here ya crafty beggar and take it like a mon!" she cried in annoyance after it.

"I better make sure she's okie and that old water body doesn't evade us all again." Sonic chimed at Sally, with slight impatience in his eyes, the quivering anticipation of adventure and battle boiling deep in his blood.

She let him go, as the reality of the situation was becoming quite apparent, namely this was one they'd _never_ come across before, they could deal with any mecha that Robotnik threw at them sure but this?

This creature was beyond imagination and one they had no experience in fighting, and it was then that the repetition of a ticking clock began in her head, representing the swinging back & forth of the decision now laying heavy on her mind, one she never liked especially when it related to Robotnik, and that was the last minute art of retreating back for another day.

And as much as she had grown to trust and even admire the hedgehog since that day, she still had that nagging doubt crawling up her back that even he and Bunnie combined could make a defying blow to the monster. And still the swinging pendulum of decision and doubt went on...

Bunnie had noted that getting a good shot on the head normally the weak point of any organic or robotic being was gonna be a bit tougher than she'd imagined, and so for her next assault she swooped down for a low blow, namely she went for the legs!

Chuckling at her daring efforts and bringing up the rear was Sonic, who decided to spin dash Chaos in the hope of splitting the creature down so that the now less accessible weak point, the brain, was wide open for a battering. Anything to take down this monster before he and Robotnik could do any more damage to the city, or bring it back home...

"Hurry up sugah-hog! This one's a brute to hold!" Bunnie shouted, grinding her teeth together as the intrusion into her body and mind got even more intense. _Please... get out of my head. I don't want to go back there and see those things! HOW CAN I SHUT YOU OUT OF MY HEAD?!_ She was screaming inside, as memories of a past she'd rather forget and renew over with new ones fluttered in and around her mind's eyes. And her grip on the watery and somewhat surprisingly muscular legs of Chaos began to whine.

The cooling wind of a familiar attack cascaded over Bunnie's face, and she gazed still with some awe in her eyes, even after all this time, at the marvellous attack, and one that was definitely a fan favourite of Sonic's with the kids back at Knothole.

The midway sun made the attack look shiner and fierce than ever before and with a rocketing crash the hedgehog cut horizontally through Chaos' form and then spread him out into a five star formation in the air and 'flew' on back down to finish the job.

And during those few moments the tight lasso rope like grip that Bunnie had was whisked out of her hands, just like Chaos' body literally had been as the bottom half splashed to the floor in pieces, whilst the other one, standing against the test of gravity, convoluted in mid air.

It wasn't until the last possible moment that Sonic saw the web that he was about to be entangled in, as Chaos spread his form out wide like a flattened net in the air and then enveloped the poor hydrophobic hedgehog in a hug like movement, and reforming in full once again as a mostly spherical body of water, which now had Sonic trapped inside.

Needless to say, Sonic was none too happy about this sudden turn of intellect on Chaos' part...In fact he was now going more erratic than the other Freedom Fighters could ever remember him going except during the Super Sonic incidents, Sally thought, and Chaos' body was being pummelled and stretched in pretty much every direction from the collisions of the blue hog's Spin Dash attacks.

He was belting a screamer the likes of a terrified madman almost too, "NO! NO! HELP... LET ME OUT! ARGHH!" the likes of which sent shivers up all of the gang's spines.

The slimy green eyes of Chaos were only mildly disgruntled by this 'indigestion' problem, and Rotor noted this, coming to the realisation that Sonic could only keep this up for so long before he burned himself out. And when Tails' frantic eyes met his own, he knew that Sonic was on a slippery slope that could cost him more than a spiky spine or two...

"Sally we have to get him out of there before-" the cap wearing Walrus began, before she finished for him in a displaced and quiet voice, "he drowns. I know..."

And as the Freedom Fighters looked it helplessly, Sally was cursing herself for having not given a retreating order sooner.

It looked like only a miracle would save Sonic now... or was it?

_FLASHBACK _

_South Island / The Great Forest / 08: 12 AM 3Years Ago_

_Deep within the Great Forest a platoon of Swatbots, sent by Robotnik to follow any mobian that went into it had mistakenly give silent chase to Sonic and Tails, instead of following any of the established Freedom Fighters. Not that it truly mattered, a prize was a prize and besides these two flesh creatures were wanted criminals over from West Island anyway. So yes, all was good with yet another victory for Overlord Robotnik now._

_The surrounding dark blue robots reminded Sonic of a horde of octopuses, deadly creatures he'd read about that lived under the sea that had eight arms, as they closed in on their pray. Yes... I think that would be a good comparison here, he thought. Not that I should be thinking of something so depressing, I have to figure out an exit..._

_The leading commander Swatbot then stepped forward bringing Sonic out of his thoughts and back to damning reality, though funnily enough the only noticeable difference between him and his brotherhood was a little more centimetres to his height. Still it'd be best to stay on our guard; they'd have been no point in coming to this, his main island, and getting killed._

_And ironically enough Tails was mumbling a silent prayer that resonated partly with what Sonic was contemplating, although this prayer was the hope that Sonic didn't do anything reckless himself and get them all hurt... or worse. _

_As young and an enthusiastic hero worshipper as he was he wasn't blind to see when they'd been checkmated._

_The commander Swatbot glanced at two of his flunkies, namely the ones nearest to the duo and with swift movement the two each got their own set of black and silver chains._

"_Hey! Get your greasy mitts off of me ya big piece of scrap metal – and don't ruin the gloves!" Sonic began in protest, not to any anvil, naturally, since trying to run would've been a death sentence. _

_Tails didn't protest as much in the vocal range beyond frightened yelps and so he pretty much wanted the cuffed chains on so these things wouldn't touch him anymore with their cold deathly husks. _

_A glance from the nearby Sonic told him only one thing, and that was that he was so sorry for all of this... _

"_**Subject One**__... Sonic The Hedgehog... __**Subject Two**__... Tails 'Miles' Prower...__** Recorded Crimes**__: Fighting against Lord Robotnik's rule in the West Island Region... __**Threat Level**__: Low..."__ the commander droned._

"_**You both have been found guilty of treason against Lord Robotnik – How do you plead?**__"_

"_Oh definitely the GUILTY one my good chap!" Sonic delivered with one last wisecrack, prompting even Tails to roll his eyes slightly in mild annoyance._

_Just how can he be so frivolous in the face of danger, he thought?_

"_**Then we arrest you, guilty as charged!"**_

_Liaisons with thinking were abruptly broken as the Swatbots marched onward from whence they had come, yanking their chains so they'd follow suit and keep up. Sonic kept his cool intact by gritting his teeth instead, and daring them or even Robotnik himself to imagine him as their little pet – because this was one hog that'd not play ball._

_And so off they marched, slowly but surely and deeper into the unknowns of the Great Forest..._

XXXXX

"_Just how can that one be so darned frivolous in the face of danger?" one voice came, as cool and southern as the wind but with touch of angered disbelief. _

"_Oh he's just a kid, they both are. And they definitely shouldn't have been playing around with Swatbots. What nuisances!" An angry feminine voice grunted with a hint of vague bitterness hidden in amidst it. _

"_Think they're away from home?" This came from an older sounding voice of reason, and from behind the second speaker._

"_They certainly look like a bunch of stowaways if you ask me..." A sarcastic, yet desperately posh masculine voice replied, who was situated behind the other four figures up on this maze of long thick tree branches, which surprisingly had held all of their weight for the last few minutes._

"_And did we ask you Antoine?" replied the second voice, that of Princess Sally Alicia Acorn, in a dry and bemused tone._

"_No, ma chere but you have to admit that they definitely don't look or act native to de __région_ _at least no?" Antoine seriously replied, with a hint of standing in a cross armed stance._

_The slight lingering silence seemed to answer that for all of them until Rotor, the elder voice of reason spoke up._

"_You can't disagree with that, Sally."_

"_No, I guess not..."she replied in a sighed defeat._

"_Then let's get this show on the road guys, we have to stop those Swatbots from stumbling upon Knothole pronto!"Bunnie hollered, smacking one fist in her other hand in a non-subtle fighting gesture. _

"_But what about those two immature ones everyone...?" Antoine surprisingly brought up in a concerned voice._

"_Aww is Antoine actually growing a heart or a backbone at last... maybe both?" Sally teased, with a smirk on her face._

"_Oh no, no... It's just that we can't leave these nuisances at large, who knows what more trouble they could bring us or __**Knothole**__." He began with a stutter, before growing more confident in bringing his slur of words into something coherent and meaningful._

_But that was Antoine for you, he could be blundering something up or speaking annoyingly and sarcastically, but from time to time he'd actually make some good points before anyone else. _

_Antoine's point caused them all to glance at each other with tense fear, for if either the Swatbots or these two obvious novice ruffians found their way into Knothole then things would get a lot more complicated, and certain people might get hurt._

_No matter how much torture and interrogation the Freedom Fighters detested it was a needed backup plan, since they were in the middle of a war._

_And so nodding in understanding at the daunting prospects ahead, they set off to avert disaster before it reached their doorstep by leaping from tree to tree after their query, who had headed north._

_And that wasn't too far off from the Great Oak Slide entrance and Knothole..._

XXXXX

"_**Keep moving infidel!"**__ roared the Swatbot holding Sonic's chains as the fatigue of walking miles and then fighting a bunch of these bonzos had finally taken its toll, and he'd stopped wearily for a moment or two._

"_Better do as he says Sonic..." Tails said wearily, who was rather tired firstly of walking and secondly as being dragged to goodness who knows where._

_The capital probably he responded to himself, Robotnik's main city, Robotropolis... Even the mere thought of the place, which he hadn't seen in his life, sent a shiver down his spine._

"_Ugh... Fine, we'll do it your way for now," Sonic groaned, following the lead up ahead._

"_Just how far do we have left to go now?" he asked at an off whim thought._

_The commander Swatbot stopped abruptly in his tracks, yanked the duo toward him and grabbed one in each metallic crushing hand, red piercing eyes going from one to the other... _

"_**How far we have left to go is up to you to decide... by first telling us where Knothole is."**__ he boomed in what would probably have been a playfully dangerous tone, were he not a robot of course, that instead only droned loudly to get his point across._

"_What the heck is Knot-" Sonic and Tails began to speak, utterly confused._

"_**Don't bothering lying infidel, we know that is where the resistance force known as the 'Freedom Fighters' is situated. And now you will tell us where it so we can wipe it out." **_

"_Heh heh, sorry pal but me and Tails work alone. We don't know of any such 'Freedom Fighter' gang, sorry," Sonic cheekily replied, now having grown subtly curious about what all this was about._

"_**Tell us now infidel or we will open fire on your little accomplice here,"**__ the commander Swatbot replied, as smooth and calm as a typical robot does._

_Beads of sweat and etches of nervousness run across Sonic's face, just how the hell am I gonna lie my way out of this one, especially with what they said they'd do to Tails?! Come on hedgehog think! Use your brain for once! _

"_No answer? Well then – open fire troops on the subject called 'Tails now!"_

"_NO! TAILS!!" Sonic screamed, speeding up his legs and trying to wrestle out of his cuffs, if only to throw himself in harm's way, but alias... _

_Everything was about to change._

XXXXX

_It was all over in a matter of seconds; the fury of kicks and fluid dance like movements as three shadowy figures who had leaped down from the treetops made short work of the Swatbot herd. Only the commanding Swatbot and the two holding Sonic and Tails still stood._

_An excoriating grunting noise from behind prompted Sonic back to reality and swiftly look behind him to locate its source, "Don't worry, you are among friends fellow allies," the calm and wise voice came._

_Sonic and Tails took this moment of shell shock disbelief to take in their one visible rescuer; he was a light blue skinned walrus who wore yellow cap which was very kiddy in appearance, and just simply screamed that he was a big techno geek, maybe even bigger than Tails was... _

_And yet he'd just pried and broken their cuffs straight off them, just who was he and those other guys - some sort of super hero wannabe team or something? Sonic pondered with fascination._

_The walrus guy also bore two medium __white sized tusks from the sides of his mouth, large cumbersome feet which cant have been great for running, and short-medium sized silvery grey claws, which to Sonic's eyes didn't look that sharp, nor plain blunt. A brown orangey strapped multi-case of pockets, containing his many handy gadgets of doom, Sonic thought with mild amusement, was stretched and fitted across his strong clay coloured chest._

_Tails shared a similar thought, though he was far more in awe of these guys who had just shown up and saved him and Sonic, as his wide open mouth and shining eyes conveyed all too clearly._

_The three figures had now stationed themselves a couple of feet in front of where Sonic and co were, which was to the side of the last standing Swatbot, the commanding drone of this operation, who was staring down at the unexpected competition ahead, his gun arm primed._

"_Is everything okay over there Rotor?" the female in the middle shouted._

"_Everything's 'A' okay over here Sally. These handcuffs were a piece of cake, pretty much," the walrus, now known as Rotor, replied with slight wariness, the slight blush on his face betraying how much effort the cuffs had really taken to shatter. He turned to Sonic and Tails who were looking back and forth from their new guests still in mild confusion as to who they were and why they'd saved them, not that they weren't grateful, it was just abit odd..._

"_...And the two prisoners look to be okay, no injuries as to what I can tell," he continued, quickly glancing over their two forms as he did so. "They didn't hurt you or anything did they?" Rotor beckoned to them, surprising them for a second before Sonic replied in their favour._

"_No man, were okay. Nothing we can't handle..." _

"_That's good to hear," Rotor said with a smile, before pointing out for them to watch the ensuring action in front of them unfold with a slight movement of his thumb. Tails and Sonic glanced at each other, shrugged and then did as they were subtly told. _

_It was then that they both really took in the visible features of Rotor's teammates._

_The female in the middle, obviously the chick in charge Sonic thought, and who'd spoken to the walrus Rotor just before had short styled crimson hair in a large frontal fringe, __and the rest covering the back of her head down to shoulder length__ . She bore brown creamy skin and small azure eyes, filled with strength and determination. Of the squirrel or chipmunk species Sonic put her down as upon first sight, maybe even a variation of both. The lady also __wore a small blue fitted jacket with side pockets and equally fitted blue coloured boots._

_The stance she took suggested that she knew of some martial art or hand to hand combat, for she had nothing else visible on her figure to defend herself with._

_A girl who can defend herself eh? I like that idea... Sonic thought cheekily, whilst trying not to look too hard at her 'assets' in the process. To which he pretty much failed no surprise._

_Tails caught him nevertheless, that's it Sonic just peeve all over the leader of the group that just saved us, that's real good, the fox was thinking as he rolled his eyes at his friends teen boyish antics._

_To the right of the woman taking Sonic's current interest was an older looking lady of the rabbit species, of a creamy brown complexion who had long but thinly skinned structured ears and cute white fluffed curls either side of her face, as well as the pink nose that typical bunnies have. She also had long blonde hair, but a gasp inducing and striking difference however, half of her body was pure hard silvery metal with a slight hue of purple from one of her arms down to her very large feet and its toes. Wow... those must be formidable weapons, Tails thought grimly, deciding there and then never to get on the wrong side of this lady should he or Sonic help it!_

_The metallic arm that she was blessed or cursed? with was fitted with a spherical orb and the two dividing arm sections connected via a narrow thin like tube. The metal casting was greater in width going down the legs, which probably allowed great jumping ability than normal Tails noted._

_Her upper torso was fitted perfectly with a purple heart shaped bra detachment (not alike that of Rouge's for those perverted geeks out there) and secured to her waist with a thin black belt; and finally she had large engaging green eyes and a big smile on her face, even whilst she stood in her tensed fighting stance where she had her legs spread apart and her fists in a striking and intimating position._

_She must obviously like to battle then... which must be good for us, right?_

_Sonic's eyes finally flickered from the crimson haired leader to the rabbit girl who he thought looked pretty kickass and cool, and then to the last of the pack. And from his visible posture it was easily to deduce that he was the Joker of this pack. _

_The male in question was a clay skin coloured coyote who had simply too much blonde hair and extremely tidy, bordering on doll like perfection, to be considered real, or so thought Sonic anyway from a first glance. The coyote had piercing blue eyes that lacked strength and were actually wobbling at this moment in time, confirming that he was indeed a wuss in Sonic's eyes. It actually made the whole clothing range that he was wearing all the mean ironic and funny to Sonic, in that it the guy wore a clean and prim blue jacket with red lining connecting vertically across the chest area, with red hand chuffs._

_It looked so soldier like but it just didn't seem to fit the person it was fitted on, and the clown like red boots with its top red cufflinks didn't make the funny image in Sonic's head any more brave heart like, just more funny._

_Just who is this guy, and what's he doing with these guys? He wondered seriously._

XXXXX

"_Bunnie, would you like to deal with this one?" the squirrel girl lightly but firmly asked of the rabbit woman, now confirmed to be named 'Bunnie', of all things._

"_It's an interesting name eh fellas?" Rotor chimed cheerfully in the duo's direction, to which they could only nod dumbfoundly with a word, as they still stared at the showdown to come._

"_It'd be my pleasure Sally-girl," an airy southern yet strong voice came, as Bunnie smacked his fist in the other hand, stepping forward with a smooth flow of confidence. "... Ya sure ya don't wanna come along and help dearie old me Antoine hon?" _

"_I'm a...fine... Bunnie; I'm sure you need none of mi assistance..." the coyote stuttered, trying obviously to sound confidant but failing, even despite the sword he had on his presence._

"_Suit yourself Antoine!" she chimed back cheerfully in return._

_The bunny woman then sprinted and lunged at the commanding Swatbot, crashing right through him and landing gracefully as a cat on the other side, where Rotor, Sonic and Tails were; the last two of whom were even more in awe at this parties fighting prowess and swift elegance._

"_What a piece of cake they were – no rouble at all!" Bunnie boomed, giving one last kick to the fallen Swatbot's head for good measure, "The bad old doc really has to find more reliable troops."_

_Sally give her a thumbs up in return, and whilst Bunnie walked across to rejoin her group, Sally motioned for Rotor and co to come over as well, the latter two of course were abit more slow and wary having walked for miles, gotten captured and were now at the mercy of a group that could kick their asses to the Northern Tundra and back!_

_But alias they thought what the hell? It's not as if they actually going anywhere in particular in the first place, something Sonic had grudgingly told Tails whilst they were being marched through the forest earlier. And the pre-teen had told it quite well considering, he just wish Sonic had told him the truth and not a lie first._

_An oath of brotherhood of course had been exchanged, but whether either of them would keep it – time would tell..._

"_Hello there fellow travellers, or should I say freedom fighters...?" Sally said calmly and friendly to Sonic and Tails, extending a hand._

_The two returned it, "Yes I guess we are but just you are you guys anyway? And what's this Knothole those brain dead bots were so harped on?"Sonic began in a slight impatient tone, grateful for their help but somewhat grouchy from the long trip._

"_All in good time you two... Sonic and Tails was it?" she said with an all-knowing smile, looking at the respective person as she cited their name._

"_How did you know of our names miss Sally...?" Tails piped up, curious and slight nervousness apparent in his quiet voice._

"_Let's just say we've been tracking you for awhile and overheard some things, Tails," she said in a warm motherly voice, before turning all serious and mysterious like again as she addressed them both, with Rotor, Bunnie and Antoine looking intrigued behind her._

"_Oh for your earlier question Sonic the Hedgehog – allow me to introduce you to the Knothole Freedom Fighters." _

_/END FLASHBACK _

**Mystic Ruins Zone / Outside of Tails Workshop / 09: 41 AM**

Pressure...

A deadly, freezing weight that swallowed him on all sides... No air. Senses smothered.

All he could see and feel was a pitch black void of pressure and terror, and the hollowed rush of his own pulse. So this was what he'd been afraid of all this time, this was really what it was like to drown...

And thoughts wandered to and fro throughout him, things like: _Would Tails be okay if he died right here, right now? What would happen to the others if he couldn't stop Chaos here, right now? If he fell then would they all be okay? And what about Robotnik-_

_No._

_He couldn't give up here._

_He wasn't going to let this scary, out of the pond, oversized frog / alien wannabe win, and especially not after the whole Super Sonic ordeal, he wasn't gonna be beaten just like that – it would be too embarrassing for one!_ And after everything they'd all been through, this _couldn't_ be the end.

But just what could he actually do now on such low energy reserves?

To that he had no answer, and so he lapsed back into unconscious in the dark waters of the beast.

XXXXX

He'd gone as pale as a ghost when it had happened, his eyes wide and his mouth shaking as though he wanted to cry out – but he couldn't, he was still deep within shock, his world on the borders of cracking to pieces, and yet Tails remained hovering on the beat of his twin tails, just staring at the now emotionless pools that were Chaos' eyes.

The others were calling for him to come down, to take a break, but he paid them no attention as he stared evermore into those eyes, and was confused at how this water beast could change from such primal emotions to absolutely nothing in seconds. Perhaps he was just confused and enraged after having been set free from his imprisonment for however long by Robotnik? Or maybe he was just a monster, a cowardly one who'd now swallowed up his best friend, his only brother in life, and was now plunging him into death's abyss.

That set off a spark within him, and the simmering rage that had built up over the years – at the injustice of it all, the pain, suffering, at those who were lost to him forever, and at how he'd always been shafted on the sidelines like a baby. _Well no more..._ "No more!" he screamed. And with that primal rage empowering him on, Tails swooped down unto Chaos and plunged right into bellowing stomach.

Needless to say the Freedom Fighters were not the only ones frantically startled; Chaos' eyes were now wide and dumbstruck.

XXXXX

A great sound suddenly rocketed throughout the cold abyss, startling Sonic out of his fading funk on the road that was life, his cool yet painful life.

But even with his eyes open he couldn't make out anything around him.

_Was he not alone anymore? _

Frantic arms in the darkness... searching... he couldn't see them but he could hear the swishes of movement as they penetrated the abyss, _looking for him?_

_Over here, I'm over here! Please help... me..._ He would've cried out had he have been able, the drowning waters and pressure of darkness had cut off his vocal chords, which was to no surprise as he hadn't breathed in how long – five or ten minutes? He wasn't sure; he only knew that his time was almost up...

Black spread across his vision like an octopus spewing ink, one that began to numb all of his senses at once. But it was that doomed moment that a hand, albeit a small but strong one, suddenly grasped his own and whisked him away.

The last thing he remembered was an uncanny realisation of his saviour as felt the familiar brush of two tails brush and batter on a heightened surge of power against his own frail body. And with that a pride filled smile became etched on his face.

And there was darkness.

XXXXX

The drumming of his heart was still there, and as long as that tiny essence of light still burned than Sally was going to keep on going. And so she tried once more to resituate him, _one, two, and three and exhale... _

_Keep at it Sally, we can't lose this one; I can't lose him, not before I can..._

XXXXX

A cool breeze fluttered across his cheeks and through his spiky spines.

And he could feel soft lips pressing to his.

Sonic figured that this was probably just another dream; except he couldn't remember the last time he had had one this muddled. Darkness slowly crept away from the edges of his mind and left it swimming in a slow, churning ocean of its own.

Something lingered there inside of him—a black breeze that swept away his thoughts and threatened to carry them back into an undertow of nothingness. He struggled against it and mentally grasped onto what he could.

Air rushing into his lungs...

And those lips closed onto his again, those lips that hadn't been touched by no one other than his 'rents and his own finger. They tasted sweet and fragrant, from what little he could feel of them.

And then they slipped away as he felt his breathe rising up his body...

A shuddery inhalation against his ear, then a stifled sob came next, "W-Wake up..."

_Pain..._

It started as a deep burn within his chest and then gradually spread—a tingling sting along his feet and wrists to the base of his spine and focusing in his shoulders, then the sensation of thousands of prickly feet crawling beneath his skin. And finally—

His stomach lurched, and he heaved water, his lungs and ribs aching like a whale had landed on them. Rolling onto his stomach, he coughed and gasped for air and collapsed against the ground.

His fingers met rough and grainy warmth, and his racing heart gave a tremble at the unexpected familiarity.

_Rock... Grains of soil... like the sands of home._

Releasing another hoarse cough, he buried his face in the remnants of his childhood, and he tried to pretend he was home. He could even feel the smoothness of the wooden construct that had been home, the roaring winter fire and the smell of chilli and fried sausages from the kitchen, and the clinkering of Chuck working in his work room...

A cold hand rested against his bare shoulder, reminding him he wasn't alone. Then the hand became a chest against his back, two arms that clenched around him, a face that pressed to his neck, and a voice with a name saying _his _name with so much concern and relief that he knew, just knew, he really was dreaming.

"Sonic..."

_Sally... Tails... Rotor... Everyone..._

He felt the tears burn beneath his clenched lids as unbridled emotions fought their way out of him. He didn't dare open his eyes for fear of waking up. _No, he wanted to stay home just a little bit longer..._

There he didn't have to worry about robots, or mad scientists or monstrous bodies of water or who he may have lost or lose next or whether they were all doomed to fail in saving Mobius from evil's grasp...

"S-Sonic, stay with us, _stay with me_, stay awake, don't—"

Fingers ran desperately through his tangled hair, touched his face, and lightly slapped his cheeks. _I don't want to wake up, not yet... _But the dark breeze from earlier swept through his mind again, and jumpstarted his systems, and then he woke up.

XXXXX

"GASP!" exhaled the azure hedgehog with a start, almost knocking Sally out with a head clashing. It was then that both squirrel / chipmunk and hedgehog realised how close their lips were and immediately parted, awkwardly, embarrassingly and with blushes both apparent on the others face. The others, having instantly watched this scene with hopeful expectations of _certain_ feelings finally being spoken well minus Antoine, then swerved around so their backs were turned and began whistling to themselves so as to not look like the prying sort.

Needless to say Sally was not that thick and pouted for awhile.

The tension was sliced with a joyful cry from the day's hero.

"SONIC!" Tails cried as he wrapped his arms around the hedgehog who'd been trying to stand up, but who now was knocked onto the floor. _What the hell he wondered, it's not as though Chaos seemed to be around...?_ "Oh Sonic I don't know what happened, but seeing you in there I just knew I had to do something and-" and a finger to his lips silenced the eager fox's monologue.

"I know Tails, you saved me and for that i owe you a great thanks, little bro." He said with a sincere smile.

Now it was Tails turn to be embarrassed, having not been used to such high praise, especially from the hero he'd looked up to for the last god knows many years; turning a subtle pink across his cheeks. "Oh gosh I didn't do that much... Really..."

"Stop being so modest little bro-"

"Hmph... someone should take his own silly advice." Antoine chimed under his breath, prompting Bunnie to roll her eyes.

"...without you I would've been a goner. Though I never knew you had such a fighting instinct in ya bro. You did a lot of growing up today." Sonic finished, patting Tails on the back before grinning like mad and ruffling his hair once again before tickling his under arms .

"Oh stop that Sonic – that tickles!" Tails burst out laughing, and his protests went unheard.

"That may've been so but that was very dangerous of you Tails – you could've ended up hurt and really badly! " Sally began, although upping her tempo seemed to help none and so her motherly protests of reckless acts went mostly unheard of as the boy's laughter carried on for a time. And so Sonic's dark and guilty thoughts were put to rest, for now at least.

It had been nothing short of a well-timed miracle on Tails' part and Sally was going to drum that into their heads, whether they liked it or not, and whether it made her feel less guilty... or not.

XXXXX

Later on Tails would alert them to his ulterior motive in stepping up to tackle Chaos, which was with all of the residue slime on his and Sonic's bodies, to study and create something from Chaos's DNA.

He indefinitely wanted to study how Chaos bonded and grew from the chaos energy he took from that last Chaos Emerald.

"So you're trying to rework and improve on the Chaos Emerald tracking device already eh Tails?" Sally had teased mildly, which was true of him he figured, he always liked to redefine things, break them down and rework them to be better than before.

The creative streak and knowhow of mechanics was just two things that ran fluidly through his veins, and there was no shame in that was there?

"Yea I am Aunt Sally, and with this added knowledge of Chaos' form we should all be able to track down all the Chaos Emeralds before Robotnik and Chaos does easily," the young fox chimed with pride.

But this time he wasn't gonna be alone, as Rotor spoke up and said that'd he'd help him with it and that everyone should get some rest – for it had been an exhausting day.

That was an understatement they all privately mused.

So Sally and co went to bed whilst Tails and Rotor got to work on cracking chaos energy…

_For Tails was growing up, ready to take on the world... Well maybe not quite yet,_ Sally thought as she lay in her bed, _but with time... He'd go on to do many great things and not just with us, she hoped, slightly,_ that much she was sure of.

And with a warm smile of reassurance and comfort, she then let herself fall into the realm of dreams, eager for a brand new day.

XXXXX

**Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream**

XXXXX

And thus ends the eighth chapter of this story arc!

I hope you enjoyed this, and the chapters so far, any comments or ratings would be nice and appreciated! -

'**Out on the Town' is the next chapter, starring Knuckles and the Freedom Fighters.**

Take care ya'll **smiley face**


	10. Out On The Town

**Disclaimer**: _I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

* * *

Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "**Change The World**" by ARTIST Dream

* * *

**CHAPTER 9: Out on the Town**

**Mystic Ruins Zone/ Tails Workshop / 17:33 PM**

Inside the dark and techno surrounded depths of Tails Workshop the next day where Sally and NICOLE had tried repeatedly to find traces of Robotnik and Chaos, to no avail, to where Sonic put the jukebox on just a little too loud and annoyed the hell out of everyone, and where Bunnie and Antoine had explored the surrounding area for clues on this clear day, Tails and Rotor were about to finish their substantial breakthrough.

The two each wore a typical white scientists cloak and both had their hands full, Tails having to keep the device steady so any chemical imbalances wouldn't backfire on them should the re-routed circuitry not work as to plan or his appointed safety rules.

Rotor had the delicate task of connecting wires and parts to other ones, and right now he held a thin twin piece of red and green wire in his big hands, "So we connect this part here to this one... and then... presto! I think we just nailed this new handy toy to a 'T'!" the walrus exclaimed abit too childishly for someone who'd worked for nearly a day, well half a day, give or take...

"Why are you talking like some jazzed up rapper Rotor...?" Tails quizzed, with a hunched up eyebrow that just said 'what the hell'.

"Oh sorry... Sonic's too much of a bad influence on me I guess ha-ha," Rotor laughed sheepishly, a slight blush of embarrassment across his cheekbones.

Truth be told much of the morning had been spent continuing to study the vial that contained a sample of Chaos' watery tissue, and using it to boost the capabilities of the original radar ten-fold. This had been done by merely using some of the sample in the radar itself, keeping it regulated with gases straight out of the air so that it didn't just die or dry out or anything, so in essence they had a half living radar.

But this one glowed fluorescently when in near contact with a Chaos Emerald, as Sonic had demonstrated many a time over the afternoon by making it glow and then not, rinse and repeat... Yea Sal wasn't that impressed, naturally...

She had been very proud of the both of them though, and very impressed with the radar and its capabilities.

It still bore the original GAMEBOY like design of before but in the middle there now rose a clear elliptical dome, filled with the familiar water form that had been... _was_ a part of Chaos himself, which was a practical Chaos Emerald beacon. And the glass dome was partly permeable so this allowed gaseous exchange to take place naturally, keeping the sample alive and healthy.

"Guy's it's almost six a clock, we don't wanna be late for old Amy do we?" the unmistakeable exotic and strong voice of Bunnie hollered from the kitchen, where Antoine and Sonic had been put on cleaning duty to keep them out of trouble by the princess herself, much to their plain discontent that still stained their faces.

"You two better clean yourselves up too and do as you're told," laughed Sally as she walked past them both, giving them both a peck on the cheek to say thanks before being the first one out of the door. This left Sonic and Antoine to blush privately to their selves, leaving Bunnie to roll her eyes and be the next one out, but not before dragging sugah hog and 'twan out by the arms with her.

Though they still managed to hastily grab their black tie dinner jackets just before they were vamoosed away; Tails and Rotor were the last ones out, the scientist gowns rightfully ditched, and then they all slowly but surely made their way on the train line to Station Square and to a reunion with an old friend...

And Sonic was absolutely dreading it.

* * *

**Station Square / Western Sector / 20:34 PM**

_So this is a city eh. _

_But what's so darn special about it?_

_The buildings are so tall, like giants live here or something, not tiny and puny humans... Why do it – do they want to feel bigger than they are or something?_

_They're so shiny too, all metallic constructs... It doesn't look as nice as anything made of stone and other more natural materials, no hard graft or nothing... _

_Spirals, twists and lines of light wiz around down below me, dancing an endless dance it seems - do they ever sleep I wonder? _

_Everything's so fast here... and always on the move..._

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

_BEEP._

_Man, can those horns just flaming shut up already?! I can't hear myself think here..._

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

_BEEP._

_GRR... I know where I wanna shove these horns..._

_Trees... wide spaces of open water... flowers... the flocking birds... the skittering of animals... the bloody essential aspects of nature... just where the hell are they?! _

_Maybe Sonic and that lot have too high an amount of respect for them like I figured... why else would they strike down those which give us the air that we all breathe, just what could be more important than life in all its shapes and forms?_

_Tunnels of white light and even many different coloured ones trailed across the black blanket of the night sky, partly see through unlike the ones back home... They even succeeded in blocking out even the stars and heavens... _

_And the lights were blinding, burning themselves into my eyes._

_Was this what it was like to be blind? _

_This place... it's so unnatural, like shunning nature itself means nothing at all._

_There is so much I'm still not used to, I'm not sure if I'll ever get used to it._

_Do I even want to get used to it when I have my homeland and the Master Emerald?_

And as if on cue a familiar humming and chorus of barely audible mantra began to ring, louder and louder in his head, like an ancient tide of wisdom from an unknown past. It was this seemingly unconscious and mysterious connection with the Master Emeralds as well as the others, that acted as a beacon in Knuckles' own mind, allowing him to locate the emeralds through superb mystical initiation.

But then what else would one expect from the Floating Island's guardian?

As for the signal itself, it was fairly weak regarding the Master Emerald fragment but it really could feel the presence of a Chaos Emerald somewhere nearby, and so he leaned over the wall and peered across the street.

He soon wished he'd hadn't as coming out of the casino across the said street was a trio of high heeled, short dress wearing and made up young girls no more than sixteen, and one of them soon spotted his staring at them, his mouth wide open...

"Oh my god guys – there's a pervert up there looking at us!" she'd screamed, pointing at him like vermin that she should squash under her heel.

"What the-? I'm no pervert!" he'd shouted back abruptly, in a swirl of confusion and anger. He'd held back what he'd _really_ wanted to say to them but it wouldn't matter, for the other two with her had howled also soon after, covering themselves partly up before running out of sight, all still screaming blue murder.

Many people from below were boring their eyes into him now, even those with specs on this dark night, and they were making him feel quite uneasy, like he actually had something to be _guilty_ of?

Grunting to himself Knuckles turned his back on the world below and began a shadowy ascent up and over the buildings once more, the prospect that another Chaos Emerald was across the street completely vacating his current strain of thought.

He just wanted out of there.

"Ugh... just what is up with all these girls wearing barely anything, do they not have any shame?!" he muttered under his breath, as he leant against a wall with his head low. "Even 

echidna girls had more respect for their selves and class..." the condensing coldness of the air around him letting his breaths out in a small trail of airy smoke.

_Wait did I just say that out loud...?_

For true be told, he actually had no conscious idea at all at how echidna girls had dressed, for his memories were still far too hazy even after all this time, and now wasn't the time to anguish over a time he couldn't even remember or even without a shadow of a doubt place himself in. He was just here and himself, nothing else...

_I probably just (rightly) assumed that my kind were above stuff like that, especially for all the inscriptions and depictions that I have found so far, that they left behind_, he assured himself, shaking away the hazy non-sense making dreams and closing his eyes once more to 'see' where this Master Emerald piece was.

The glowing green hazed presence in his mind's eye was further on, far and away from where he was.

_And just what was I going after before those 'women' interrupted me again...?_ He thought, abruptly grinding to a halt in mid stride.

_Umm... Come on Knuckles think you plank-head! _He continued, thumping himself in a bearable pain inducing manner in bleak frustration.

"Oh yeah, a Chaos Emerald! I'd sensed one right over there before _they_ put me off," he realised with a start, jumping to his feet, a slight annoyed scowl leaving his lips over 'they'.

_If only I'd brought my communicator with me, or burrowed some mobian money from the others last time I was with them... I'm sure they'd like to know where at least one Chaos Emerald is at_, Knuckles thought rationally, having somewhat calmed down over the whole affair down below.

_Breathe in and out... breath in and out... There, now onwards to restore the Master Emerald!_ The easily flustered echidna with a rock hard head thought and physically displayed, homing his guardian and hunter instincts once more before leaping off with determination into the dark recesses of the city, to put as much distance between the city folks and their burning lights as possible...

* * *

Having worked his way out of the overpopulated downtown area Knuckles reached the quieter sections of the city, away from the nightclubs he was now in a huge residential area with more of those towering buildings.

Compared to the metallic and shiny structures of before however they all had tiny window panes, dozens in fact all over, looking like a typhoon of spider eyes peering and staring at you. The building may have been tall but it looked _small_ nevertheless.

A stampede of cars were lined up along the shot granite sidewalk, with two or three simple trees on each side, which made Knuckles feel a little bit better than earlier about humanity and its treatment of nature, but not by much.

The drawn curtains from most of the windows above and the subtle illuminative lights from under them suggested that their occupants were either out or otherwise busy, hopefully too busy not to hear or see me, he thought, preparing his next move.

For you see he'd already felt that the emerald piece was below him and nearer to the residential area of 'in plain view' then he would've liked.

The red echidna lightly let out his spiked glove in front of him, feeling for the air currents to check the balance, for he'd need it to be right to be able to glide well.

It was good enough he concluded after a time, and with a short run up he leaped into great bowels of air above the city and glided down to a building across the street. And with this Knuckles took the time to relish the exhilarating feeling of the wind in-between his dreadlocks as he became a master of air.

The landing was smooth and without incident, and with some wall hugging Knuckles shifted along the ledge and past some curtained covered windowpanes.

_This is gonna be easier than I thought, the piece of the master emerald should be right up ahead..._ an increasingly joyful Knuckles thought, pressing on.

And around the next corner want do ya know? The radiating Master Emerald piece, whose mysterious mantra still resonated vaguely in Knuckles' head, was floating right ahead, in front of another windowpane.

"Thank the stars for that, now that's one piece down just a dozen more-" he began, his eyes closed as he confidently stepped forward to claim his prize.

But alias fate is a fickle mistress... or is that more so the careless hands of a child?

For you see in the next moment the window had been opened, swaying hands alike a the multi arms of an octopus flapping out, and a small boy's head, covered with a mop of brown hair then came peering out at the stars.

Of course in his erratic state he'd not noticed the glowing fragmented emerald piece that he'd knocked from the windowsill, but Knuckles sure had...

"Oh no! What did you did that for you... you-you silly boy! You knocked over the Master Emerald piece – do you know how _important_ that is?!" the echidna cried hysterically, completely unaware that instead of bringing shame or even tears to the young boy's face, he'd only succeeded in getting a warm smile, the kind that a small child would get upon seeing one of their superheroes in action.

"Umm... are you even listening to me?" Knuckles whispered, having realised that he'd been getting no vocal response at all, all the while waving his gloved hand in front of the entranced boy's face.

_Oh boy... just what have I got myself into here?_

"... Are you a super hero sir?" the frail and wimpy boy's voice came, causing Knuckles to freeze on the spot, having never expected such a comment to apply to him, to Sonic and that lot maybe... but to _him_?

"... I wouldn't say that little guy. I'm just on the lookout for some things... that are very important to me... I'm just passing through. It's not like I'm saving anyone or anything is it?" Knuckles spoke, calmly, strongly yet reassuringly to the little lad, who must've been no more than seven years of age, sitting with one leg up and the other over the window ledge.



He turned to the boy in his last utterances, who noticed almost immediately the sheer prowess behind them, the vividness of purple and surprisingly still, even under all that, he thought he detected some lonely sadness deep within.

_Can heroes too get lonely sometimes?_

"Maybe not right now, but I'm sure you must do usually. Why else would you be able to fly?"

_This lil guy is too sickeningly kind and sweet for his own good...I guess this must what Tails and Rotor said that one time about Amy Rose... _

_This must be some form of hero worship. But then I'm no hero am I? And I can't fly, not without the Master Emerald's help anyway... _

He took his time in answering the puppy dog eyed by's question, as he didn't want to bring the boy's hopes and dreams to a standstill in the revelation that he wasn't a hero at least in his own mind, so he responded as truthfully as he could be.

"Well little guy I can actually only really glide and as for being a hero I do-"

"What's gliding?" the boy innocently injected.

"Gliding is... Gliding is way of floating and travelling the air for those without wings like myself. My dreadlocks here catch the wind as I fall and allow me to rid eit and any currents in my way. So without any strong wind in the air I wouldn't be able to 'fly' at all, least not without any additional help..." Knuckles slowly explained, trying to 'dumb' it down enough so the boy would understand the basics at least.

"Oh what help? And what about being a hero?"

Did that just fly over his head or did he actually understand it that quickly?

_Maybe humans aren't as horrible as Robotnik is or as thick headed after all, maybe_, he thought with a growing smile.

"Never mind about the extra help buddy, it doesn't matter. But as for being a hero... well I do know some heroes that you may know of... Have you ever heard of the Freedom Fighters? Or Sonic the Hedgehog even?" Knuckles continued softly, calmly deflecting the question about the 'additional help' away and instead trying to focus the boy's mind on what real heroes were, ones that definitely weren't him.

The boy paused for about thirty seconds as he thought back, "Nope, I can't say that I have..."

"Although... I did see a blue hedgehog and some other animals, talking ones, in town yesterday – are those who you mean?" the continually innocent but obviously brilliant minded boy who seemed to know exactly what to say, said.

"You did? In this city yesterday?! Oh my god... that's them. It just _has_ to be. But why would they be-" Knuckles exclaimed in excited surprise at learning this, almost completely unlike his normal subdued and calm self, but which seemed to make the boy smile even more anyway.

_What an amazing coincidence..._

_No... They must be looking for the Chaos Emeralds too, but why?_

_I guess that's just something I'll have to find out if and when I run into them_, the echidna thought, his blood already boiling with rivalry excitement as seeing Sonic again, and also just seeing them all again. It had been too long since he'd last been about...

"Wow, you didn't know? So you're their hero helper and friend...?" the

"Yea... I guess I am little guy. Cool eh?" Knuckles replied with a cool whisper, and a minute or two of stargazing silence followed, both of them at ease with the world.

"You know for such a little boy you do ask a lot of questions!" Knuckles then mildly joked, keeping back a laugh so as to keep his presence hidden although that was really out of the window by now I'd have imagined, don't ya think?.

"My mommy said it'd do me good to, something to do with later on down the road or something. I wasn't really listening," the boy said warily, finishing with a shrug of typical childlike proportions, a small grin etched on his lips.

"Heh heh, well your mum sounds pretty knowledgeable and good to me. You'd best hind and listen to her in the future, okay?" the warm voice of Knuckles replied, now having gotten to his feet, eager to leave before too long pasted and his mission was jeopardised in anyway.

"I will mister...?"

"It's Knuckles, the names Knuckles kid," the echidna said, crocking one last wink at the kid before swiftly thrusting his spiked knuckles into the next portion of the giant wall, where no window ledges lay below, preparing to wall grapple his way down.

"Goodbye Knuckles, take care!" the boy squealed just a little _too_ loudly, causing Knuckles to say goodbye in return, frantically waving one loose arm for him to go in and be quiet whilst the other kept him attached to the wall, so as to not fall to his doom.

He listened for the windowpane thud to indicate its shutting before knuckle boring and clambering his way down below, to where thankfully the Master Emerald piece was in a place well and away from the human error of opening windows and the like, much to his relief.

It'd fallen down to a ledge below, with a wider outward width, and was just floating there merrily away like nothing had happened. Intriguing resistant to breakage the emeralds were due to the chaos energy embedded within their core, it was quite fascinating.

Though the boy had reawakened something within him tonight, he wasn't sure what, _maybe a recall of something from before..._ but it made him feel warm and happier than usual, and that could only be good.

_What a nice little guy, clumsy and abit erratic but nice all the same._

_Hopefully this doesn't mean that I'm going as soft as Sonic!_ Knuckles joked in the private recesses of his mind, before grabbing the tall, diamond shaped emerald piece in his hand.

It glowed subtly and then wildly, causing Knuckles to have to cover his eyes as whiteness devoured him and then nothing.

And the little boy from his window perked up abit, from his bed, at the sudden burst of light coming from below his window, hoping for nothing but good wishes on Knuckles way on whatever he needed to get back before falling to excited slumber.

* * *

**Unknown Location / Unknown Time**

_--Play Sonic Adventure - Flashback--_

The curtain of white washed over him like the many strokes of a paintbrush and then receded just as quickly, and the world being all wishy washy for a couple of moments, before realigning to the visible plane of reality. Or at least, Knuckles hoped...

Despite the recent tumble of craziness he found to his surprise that his head and body didn't hurt at all and in fact felt somewhat soothed and relaxed in this place, wherever _here_ was anyway...

"Just where in the world am I?"

His eyes mistook it for something else for a moment before coming back to reality; vast blooming greenery, tall strong palm trees, a flourishing moat of water, large burning pot lamps and ancient temple structures could be found all over if you knew where to look after all.

If definitely wasn't anywhere he'd been before, and odder still then his sudden relocation was that other than the increasing tempo of his own heart and of the ancient blood through his body, he could hear _nothing_, there was no wind, no birds chirping...

"Even so this looks familiar somehow..."

_Wait a second_, his mind interjected, _what's that up in the distance?_

The focus of the scene seemed to widen with his uttered thoughts as he became more greatly aware than before, the ancient structure was a huge temple, and bustling around it were many echidnas, most if not all of them with tribal markings all over.

_Echidnas...?! There's so many of them... But how?! _

He was about to make a run for a group of them, to shout out to them with cries of joy; now that he wasn't gonna be alone anymore!

But before he could make any contact a high pitched chorus of incoherent voices, like chanting, drowned out his thoughts then, and all he wanted to do was get away from here but for some reason his legs appeared to have a mind of their own as they slowly trekked towards the temple.

It was there that the apparitions in his mind stopped speaking and took on several visual and stable forms at the temples base, which contorted and finally formed two recognisable bodies.

The first and bulkiest of the figures was a male, who was quite old from the grey colours of his fuzzy beard, eyebrows and the rest. His fur was a deep maroon and was covered mostly by various tribal gear, such as a grassy necklace, a brown 'dress' decorated with golden ancient symbols fitted with a grassy shim at the bottom, and cyan sandals. Ancient symbols and lines were also embedded skin deep across his large and muscular body, and he wielded a dark wooden staff with a blue upward crescent shaped spike on its tip.

The other was a young teenage girl, with orangey peach coloured fur, the typical long-snouted peach skin muzzle, and kind yet troubled cobalt eyes. And she had an ethereal look about her, which was complimented perfectly by her attire; which consisted of a silky white tank top-like garment which covered her chest, with her lower half being covered by a tribal dress with beige, green, and red triangular patterns, and fringed along the bottom hem. A long, flowing strap of green-bordered beige fabric, similar to a long wedding dress, started right above her small bent tail.

Her sandals were of the clay hued variety which allowed her small feet room to breathe, with a sequence of white straps going around her feet and up her legs. She also had large and thick, shiny cobalt blue bracelets adorn her wrists, white gloves, and a golden tiara-like band with an elliptical sapphire in its centre; it embraces her forehead, a large portion of which is covered by her quills. A golden arm brace also rests on her upper right arm, with white fur markings around many of her quills and on her lower left arm.

The two were enthralled in an argument of some kind, though I couldn't hear it coherently for it sounded as though I was underwater and it was being spoken backwards or something. What stood out for me were the piercing, cold blue eyes that the old man bore at the girl, whose own cerulean eyes were filled with a pure kind of courage and kindness, the kind I'd rarely if ever seen before, and yet they were on the verge of tears, and soon I feared all would be lost for her.

_And yet her face still looks so radiant..._

And as the girl fall to her knees, as though in prayer, the scene turned to a violent haze of red and the man was walking slowly up to her, his spear raised, and his eyes a maddening malevolent dark blue, with red flickers of flame dancing across them.

The chorus of incoherent voices now become intelligible and resonated within my head as loud as the bell of Station Square's Clock Tower had done so before:

_Father, please don't!_

_Inaudible, the seven Emeralds are essential to our survival. _

_It is for the good of all our people._

_How can I make you understand?_

_Attacking other countries, stealing and killing... can't be the right path to peace!_

_No one has the right to take their holy grounds!_

_I beg you, father!_

I could feel my heart sinking and my body shiver in a cold sweat as the scene ahead dispersed into watery ripples and the world fell away into white waters, akin to soft feathery flowers, before swallowing me whole despite my resistance.

_No... Don't take me back – Not now! _

_I want to stay! I need to help her!_

My voice did not echo... I didn't even hear it out loud myself in the void. It seemed that it was only my conscious thoughts reflecting back and forth to me, like a ripple on a grand stretch of water, growing fainter and fainter with time.

And just as soon as I'd come into this dream land of make-believe, or something called 'Oz' as one of the girls probably would've called it, there was nothing.

I could see _nothing_.

I could not feel my body, and so all that I had was my conscious thoughts, the likes of which were in a redux cube like situation regarding what'd just witnessed, for I felt it had so many layers of confusion, blank gaps and mystique to it; this seemingly random event had left me with more questions than ever before...

The first being... _just who was that girl?_

And then all trace of consciousness left him, wandering like sheep on a field, far and away...

* * *

**Station Square / Southern Sector / 21:15 PM**

I can't recall when or how I found myself there, I just was.

The vision from before still as clear and crisp as my island homeland, and was swimming freely about in my mind. I don't think I'd ever forget about it... about her...

The splatter of water was all I could feel against my body, soothing, cooling waters raining down on me from above...

_Was it raining? _

_It sure feels like it..._ he reached out with his right hand to check it so.

But when his eyes managed to awaken from their dreamy slumber and refocus he was bewildered to see the cocoon he was actually in, separated from the world and yet not. For you see, Knuckles, the self appointed guardian of the Floating Island, was currently erect and arm gesturing amidst a water fountain!

After recovering from the potentially rep destroying scenario of having young kids point him out to their bewildered mothers and fathers as some kind of typical 'cute' animal they could play with, it was then that he realised he was in a park somewhere in the city.

Having trekked for awhile across Mobius by himself some time ago he was caught up on the term he wasn't that dim-witted when it came to the modern world, and it was one that was highly welcome as it was a mild attempt at keeping part of the natural world intact, within such an unnatural metropolis.

Yet despite the one or three chirps of nearby roosting birds or the quacks of the lake borne ducks or the squeals of innocents playing the intrusion of the greater outside world could not be prevented, and soon all that really surrounded him was the noise and bustle of the city once more.

But he still held a small light of hope his anyway in his hand, that being one diamond shaped fragment of the Master Emerald, so he knew he'd be ok and that the paranoia's that swept him in these cityscapes would come to pass.

As long as he had the Master Emerald and its subordinate Chaos Emeralds, and the Floating Island, then he was bound to the world. The Freedom Fighters were also gaining steadfast heart from the guardian, but he wasn't ready to let them into his full out-spoken confidence, not yet...

Knuckles also had a churning feeling in his stomach now, a yearning familiar yet alien regarding the vision he'd bared witness to just minutes ? before.

_Maybe... the stars of aurora are finally beginning to shine down on me. And fate never plays out its entire hand all at once... so in time, maybe I'll get some answers._

_But for now... I continue on, with my quest and restore my home._

And with a leap into the rising northern wind above Knuckles glided onwards and upwards, following his own inner instincts as to where the next emerald fragment could be, and still was all completely unaware of the small floating ball of white pinkish light that had been behind him this whole time, and which now followed him into the deep black curtain of the night, this ball of white guiding light...

* * *

**Station Square / Western Sector / 20:36 PM**

Just around the corner and below in the street that Knuckles had previously been in, the five-some that were the Freedom Fighters walked diligently onward, one now filled with a sense of direction and purpose, completely the opposite of their arrival and first day in the city.

Their bellies and hearts were full, having just had a small dinner with an old friend and with three of her sub frequent new friends. And whilst it was tempting to have just handed in the towel and rested, they wanted to do this, and with haste.

They needed to get at least one Chaos Emerald before Robotnik did, they just had to...

The ever 'brave-heart' that was Antoine followed Sally like her own personal shadow with Bunnie opting to lay back with the other guys. The Princess of Acorn herself wore dark blue heeled shoes alike her typical boots in shoe form and a simple non-sleeved dark green night dress that came all the way down to the ground, her short auburn hair combed to a nice lavish finish.

Bunnie opted for a similar look, except she was garbed in a lavender dress, which in turn covered up the fact she was still wearing nothing on her feet! Having been used to walking about on nothing but her feet for many years, she wasn't that bothered by shoes yet, if ever. As for the guys, they had been made to at least comb through their hairs once or twice and don a black tie dinner jacket, which they had, and even Sally was trying hard not to blush at a certain hedgehog's mature outer shell...

"So are ya sure that our pretty lil emerald is about here Tails sweetie? I mean... this part of the city sure seems classier than what we've seen so far?" Bunnie cheerfully chimed; looking astounded at all the lights, the glamour and bustling noise.

It didn't occur to her that this may have proved slightly offensive should their present company had included another certain city girl, but Sally didn't touch upon it, that was just 

the way her best female friend was at times, completely outspoken and one who didn't always think her choice of words through.

But no matter, they had business to attend to, one far more important than focusing on what ifs, mannerisms and looking at the scenery.

"Yeah I'm definitely sure Aunt Bunnie, the Chaos Emerald Radar has been blinking and humming louder and louder with every step we take up this street, it has to be near. In fact there are... lots of small signals going off nearby too-"

He never got a chance to finish his sentence as thrice a cry came booming their way, shouting "Pervert! There's a pervert on the loose!" and then the three skimpy clad clothed girls from Knuckles' story came charging past them, looking like their wailing heads would explode from their erratic bimbo-ness at any given moment...

The taller one, the brunette bashed into and past Bunnie without nothing of an apology with the other two 'ruining' Antoine's fair hair and stepping across Tails' twin tails respectively, before charging off into the darkness like headless chickens once more.

"Hmph... Well that was hardly lady like was it sally girl?" Bunnie muttered, dusting some sparkly, grimy glitter off of her dress, and looking mildly pissed off.

"I totally and humbly agree with you there Bunnie, they should've had more manners but what were they on about I wonder? I mean should we be wary?" replied the ever diligent strong female, subtle urging caution in her whispered tone.

"I needn't don't think so Sally. I mean look up ahead, do you see any prowler of any kind?" the cool and laid back Rotor replied, who was known and loved for being one traditionalist who still looked at situations with logic in this rising Aquarian age of technology. Not that Sally didn't use other decision making means than NICOLE, because she did, it was just nice to get another perspective firsthand.

With hand on chin and eyes narrowed she replied, "Nope I definitely can't... Other than that lizard guy entering the casino over there, he looks like a real slime ball to me if nothing else! Ugh..." she shivered on the last note as a ghostly chill ran down her back and front, like swarming hands, touching... feeling...

It was enough also to make one vomit she'd have told you.

"Heh heh, good one Sal," Sonic rang out, with an approving snide grin barred her way, before feeling a slight tug on his arm from behind.

"Hey Sonic... what's a pervert?" Tails suddenly asked innocently, cocking his head to the side as he did so.

"I... umm... SAL?" the now nervous and fidgety hedgehog began.

"Sorry, you'll have no help from me on this one," she teased.

Rotor had to try hard not to laugh at the ensuring chaos, leaving Antoine too to fret and fidget stubbornly in mock impatience.

The true blue's face was certainly a picture now, decorated with a scowl in the princesses' direction, before turning to one last port of call "Bunnie...?"



"Sorry sugah hog. This isn't really the time or place ya get me?" the southern belle replied, firmly but gently, patting his shoulder as she continued onward.

"Thanks a bunch guys..." the deflated hedgehog groaned, before turning to Tails and sheepishly telling him that it was one of those things that he'd probably learn about 'when he was older'.

The subject, to no one's real surprise, was abruptly dropped from then on, especially since Tails hadn't enquired any further, with the icy silence being broken by Sonic himself.

"So what was that about other smaller signals buddy?"

Tails pointed out a dozen or so smaller dots in and outside of the city on the radar system, "Yea just look at all of them, they definitely can't be Chaos Emeralds I'd say, but probably something similar in power. They're an enigma to me though..."

"Hmm well I'm sure they can't be that important..." Sonic said flatly, shrugging them off as some other highly powered device.

The others, especially Tails and Rotor didn't look convinced but then this mystery wasn't their current priority, and so they continued to the end of the busy street.

"The signal ends here Aunt Sally; the emerald must be inside..." the fox boy said with a note of serious finality, putting away the radar into his dinner jacket breast pocket.

"Je, I guess that est so..." the French tongued Antoine responded to no one in particular, all but in awe of the dazzling and colourful building in front of them.

The front had a huge circular display of tube lighting, of no particular colour, and coloured red and yellow letters in its centre spelt out the place's name, which was CASINOPOLIS. And the rest of the outer structure was mostly the same, except with different shaped arrangements of blue, yellow and red lights, like elliptical, in a bow, rectangular etc; and its top was decorated with golden yellow shooting stars.

It was one of Station Square's renowned 'pleasure' zones, and that was one of the core reasons why Sally wanted in and out of this place ASAP... Goodness knows what horrors could befall Tails and them in here...

_Drugs, strippers, gambling addicts... _

_We simply can't hang about here_, she thought with steadfast determination, worry .

_We need to trend carefully on this dangerous ground... _

And as Sonic lead the way ahead and through the entrance doors, she knew that she'd need to keep a close watch on the reckless blue wonder...

* * *

**CASINOPOLIS / Station Square / Western Sector / 20:42 PM**

_--Play Sonic Adventure's Casinopolis and / or Sonic 2's Casino Night Zone Music--_

They'd thought the inside portion would be huge but they were wrong... It was MASSIVE, and this was only the entrance sign up hall...

There were two stretched sign up booths on either side of the gang, with long trailing cues being served only by two business suit garbed blonde male and female.

The ceiling was almost dome like and seemed to rise up and up forever, with the giant sized golden statue of some former president or the like in the entrance hall's centre, which was in turn surrounded by a small water moat with floating lilies, holding the place stably together.

Off to the side of the main hall were seven smaller casino halls, each named after a various poker or card term, such as Joker, Hearts, Spades and Diamonds etc.

Whilst Bunnie and Antoine kept an eye open for any Robotnik activity that could blow their cover he did rule over the Casino Night Zone after all..., Rotor subtly whispered as to which hall the Chaos Emerald was currently located in to his shorter partner in scientific crime, Tails, who told him that it was in the Diamond vault in front of them.

Sonic without prior warning neatly tucked in his tie, puffed up his bow tie and took his place in the sign up line.

"Sonic! Sonic the Hedgehog, is there anyone at home?" Sally was cursing quietly, trying to get the big headed hedgehog's attention.

"Oh hey Sal, what's up?" he coolly replied.

"... What's 'up' is why in blazes did you go to sign up without any discussion with me and everyone else? This isn't your show alone you know..." she continued, arms folded and voice stern.

"Hey I know what I'm doing Sally, I played the game many a time with my old uncle. This will be a smooth done deal in no time. _Trust_ me for once 'kay," came the reassuring reply, still sprinkled a tad with some ego.

Sighs "Okay Sonic, I'll give you this chance but try not to land us in too much hot water okay? We can't afford to lose this one or end up in some pointless bar brawl," the princess warily, having given up trying to turn the guy's head around for tonight.

"Pointless bar brawl...? When was the last time I ever got us into such a mess?" the dumbfounded hedgehog replied.

"May I refer you back to the day we first infiltrated the Casino Night Zone... You had a go at those three brothers at the bar and got slightly leery-" she responded, with a roll of her eyes.

"They dissed my shoes, no one gets away with that! And all I'd wanted was bottle or two of coke cola..."

"Yeah while you and Tails were on an assigned missionary role, you left him alone outside..."

"I was just gonna get some drinks and get right back to him and the mission at hand! I didn't want him to see the inside of that place," the now reared up hedgehog spat out his team leader.

"And besides... didn't they turn out to be some of Robotnik's lackeys anyway?"

"..."

"You still risked our cover for a bottle of icky soft drink Sonic, and left a minor and young kid out on his own. Anything could have happened!" she roared in his direction, her fiery auburn toned hair now taking on a whole new meaning altogether...

"Maybe I did but nothing happened did it..."

"That's not the point and you know it," she said in a huff of finality.

This was indefinitely one of those 'the truth hurts' scenario as Sonic did feel abit bad for that, as after his squabble with the Marxio Brothers the whole bar had erupted into a random brawl and had poured outside, almost getting poor Tails involved and tossed around too.

He knew he was in the wrong then but did he really need to be reminded of his past failures of judgement all the time by others when he could do it enough and more for all of them?

Couldn't Sally just trust him for a change and mellow out...

He liked her better when they got on, and when they talked on an equal base. Maybe... one day he'd let her know just how much.

"Don't worry Sal, I'll get that Chaos Emerald, then we can beat Robotnik and Chaos and go home. All of us, together," Sonic spoke in a heartfelt gentle tone, hugging Sally briefly as a non-vocal way of 'making up'.

"Yeah... You go get them Sonic," she said, giving him the thumbs up and nudged him back into the line before it was now his turn to sign up.

"Name please?" droned a flat voice from within.

"The names Sonic... Sonic Bond," the hedgehog said in his cheesy way, striking a familiar spy ridden-pose to the unimpressed female receptionist, before being dealt his poker essentials and being shooed along by those still in line.

_Oh brother, that has to be the silliest code name in the world..._ Sally inwardly groaned, but a warm subtle smile still lurked on the side of her downward face before following the rest into the Diamond vault play area.

* * *

It was inside this smaller but still pretty sizable Diamond inspired play area of six to eight medium sized poker tables and roulette wheels that the whereabouts of the Chaos Emerald was easily seen, as it was around the neck of the lizard man from earlier, who looked to be dealing some serious dough from the way the crowd was gathered around his latest game conquest.

Now that they were closer to their query the gang now could take in the slimy details around their poker opponent to be; he had sickly light to dark green scaly reptilian skin and wore a crisply cleaned brown business suit, which was knotted off with a vivid purple tie. But his most distinguishing feature, much to the girl's distaste was his whip length grimy tongue, which curled next to his lips like a snake preparing to lash and bite its next unfortunate victim...

As for the prize of this upcoming Poker roll and dice contest... The Chaos Emerald that hung like some typical 'bling-bling' around the guy's thick neck was the grey coloured emerald, which was usually always alluded to via mist and mystery like symbolisms and metaphors by those into that sort of thing, and thus not Sonic for one!.

"I'd like to take a shot at this guy," Sonic confidently spoke to the male supervising the poker table.

"Very well Mr...?"

"It's Sonic Bond man."

Cue half annoyed and amused facepalms from Sally and co

"Heh heh, you ever play poker little man?" the lizard man teased, his shiny yellow eyes observing and taking Sonic in.

"A couple of times lizard breath," was the snappy joyful reply.

"I see... Well you'll need more than beginner's luck to beat me, Max Gamble!" the lizard man boomed, laughing already at the novice-ness he assumed from Sonic's form and manner, the crisp and sweet smell of money already fluttering in his ears...

As the chips and dough were dished out, Max Gamble began to ponder something that was drilling into his mind from the moment he first saw the hedgehog he'd pretty much ignored his 'entourage', in that he seemed _familiar_ from somewhere.

"... Say Mr. Bond, have I seen you anywhere before? You look familiar," Max Gamble subtly asked, being careful not to overplay his prying curiosity, and doing it just about right so as to not scare the individual off. But then again he'd never met someone like Sonic before...

Sally and the others tensed up, waiting to see what hand Sonic would play now to get out of this.

"Maybe you're seen a cousin or brother of mine about, we hedgehogs are quite a common mobian race ya know?" the cerulean hedgehog stated firmly, hoping that'd be enough to throw off his whole hero image onto an imaginary hedgehog individual.

"Yes... maybe I did. Thanks for the tip," was the lizard man's snide reply, who'd now decided to drop the subject i.e. he still wasn't convinced by Sonic's story and wanted nothing more than to wring his and his furry pals out to dry.

_No one challenged Max Gamble in his esteemed casino pallor and lived to tell the tale..._

"Say Max, how about we make this more interesting?" Sonic chimed in.

"Go on..."

"I bet here 2500 rings saved up from his mobian travels over the years and you bet your emerald necklace, whoever wins takes it all capiche?"

"Hmm," Max Gamble thought out loud, calculating the possibilities. The ring sum was measly and something someone of his stature and status could go without, but the hedgehog's obvious curiosity in his recent acquired emerald intrigued him.

_Just what did this guy and his pals know about it and its worth?_

It seemed as though his night had just got alot more interesting...

"Okie then Sonic Bond, let's play ball," came the tongue lashing reply.

* * *

It'd been just about quarter of an hour but the game was already heating up; Max Gamble was up X and down X, whereas Sonic was up X and down X.

The atmosphere was tenuous from Max Gamble's ever loyal blonde fan girls and rich pompous fan boys to the Freedom Fighters egging on their respective man. It was a delicate situation, and one that needed to be treaded carefully in order to come out on top.

Unfortunately for a certain Sally Acorn, the tension and worry of failure was just getting too much, and so she left the table, ignoring Bunnie's heartfelt plea to return.

Sonic however was too engrossed in his chess like match against Max Gamble, one of Casinopolis' top poker players, and even the cool blur was beginning to sweat a little.

_If I just keep this defensive approach then I can get him when he least expects it!_

It was then that behind his five piece cards that Max cocked a sly grin, before then down two Aces and reducing Sonic's cards into a minority.

_Oh crap... Now what I'm I gonna do?_

It was around this time that Sally had quietly slid her way back into the fold and was whispering her intended plan to Bunnie, who seemed to be in mild agreement considering how Sonic's last play had gone on down.

Antoine thought that anything that increased the cerulean hedgehog's ego was a bad thing, in his honest opinion, and the others were in reluctant agreement.

For the princesses daring plan was to magnetize NICOLE to the bottom of the table after subtly sticking her under the table and then magnetize the playing table, to allow them to control Sonic's dice to make him win out on top.

_It's a risky procedure but one I feel is all we have left. I'm sorry Sonic..._

She leaned over the table, gave Sonic a quick peck on the cheek and then used the ensuring red confusion to place NICOLE under the table.

_What the... was that Sal? That was weird..._ the racing thoughts of Sonic uttered silently, his face still a light peach colour from his uncontrollable blush.

"Aww someone has you on a tight enough leash I see, she's a good pick!" Max Gamble teased, whilst his leery eyes wondered over Sally's form, and causing her to glare back at him and inwardly shudder with disgust.

_Oh how I want to ring this perverted creep's neck right about now_, she was thinking.

"What... she's not my girl man!" Sonic protested in a grumbled tone, his blush now gone and replaced with immature annoyance at Max's prying ways. "She's just a friend."

"Okie, okie then. Whatever you say Mr. Bond... Let's continue."

"Yeah... Let's."

_I don't know what that was about but if you're up to something Sal I swear..._

_I'll find it out._

* * *

It was after the next round of their poker game extravaganza that Sally's game was rambled, at least by Sonic.

After Max's double ace victory in the least round, Sonic had prayed a little not too much as that just wouldn't be his style that the dice rolled a double six or near enough and what would ya know, he then rolled out a 6 and 4.

_Wow that was pretty decent. Sweet..._

It was only after the next two rolls, during which time Max Gamble had failed to move forward towards a victory and was at an obvious stalemate for the time being, that Sonic's luck still continued to roll, with him getting more sixes and a near enough high number.

Why no one else other than him, especially Max Gamble himself hadn't noticed the oddness of it all was beyond Sonic's thinking, for it was beginning to bother him...

_I remember being alright at this game but not this kind of alright..._

_Is there some kind of dice hungry gum stuck under the table or something...? _

_No way... She didn't..._

From a weird random thought about dice hungry bubble gum which we'll just put down to Sonic being abit peckish 'kay?, Sonic had felt under his portion of the poker table and had felt a familiar form, a rectangular NICOLE like contraption in fact.

God darn you Sally... I thought you said you'd trust me on this one! And now it seems that you're been cheating my way using your omnipotent computer, cue a sarcastic roll of the eyes like moment, in his thoughts.

"Is there a problem Sonic?" Max injected, startling the hedgehog out of his thoughts for a moment but with haste he regained his composure and replied cheekily.

"No problem at all Max, none at all... Let's play ball," in which time he'd pricked NICOLE off the tables underside and subtly stowed it away in his dinner suit's breast pocket under the table and then gave an annoyed glare over in Sally's direction, who being a remarkably smart lass put two and two together and looked away.

_Yeah you better feel bad about it Sal... But for now I have this lizard dude's ass to kick and a Chaos Emerald to retrieve. I'll be having words with you later..._

The two poker battlers were now near or less even and to break the tie as per the strong suggestion of the table keeper, they were now going for one last make or break round where the highest rolled throw and card amount would determine the winner.

Sonic was abit nervous now he'd admit, for the primary reason of what the consequence of failure would bring mostly anyway, he also liked to win after all, but he wasn't going to rely on a cheap win, no way, that wasn't his style. Good old luck and skill were still just as jamming and great as technical knowhow in his opinion.

"Well good luck to you hedgehog..." Max Gamble snidely spoke, a glimmer of malice apparent in his yellow and black eyes.

_I'll be sure to crush the life out of you should you make a mockery of me._

"Right back at ya man," Sonic smirked with no malice behind his words, seemingly oblivious to the dangerous gambler and gangster he was facing off with.

The scheming lizard then took a fast roll, ending up with a four and five, before placing his remaining cards face up on the table grid, which were 2 Aces, a Joker, an 8 of Spades and a Queen respectively.

"Grr dammit!" the lizard man roared, his temper finally flaring, before stomping the table with his right fist, which nearly flung all of his laid cards, randomly laid poker chips and the dice off of the table and into any one of the gathered crowd's eyes.

_Come on Sonic, you do it... _Sally was thinking, her fists tensed and the world around her seeming to slow down in anticipation.

"You go get him sugah hog!" Bunnie threw in excitedly.

And so on forth...

* * *

Sonic left the room on a tense thread but hesitating on purpose with a clear unreadable face before smirking a sly and happy grin, flipping each of his winning card deck in turn, which was an 3 Aces, a Queen and King.

The princess almost fainted from the exhaustion the hedgehog's rollercoaster like game had wrought, with Bunnie catching her in her arms to prevent such a fall, before the gang bursts into a joyous celebration even Antoine, grudgingly

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN!?"

But Max Gamble wasn't, he was furious, and smashed the thick glass of the poker table down with one almighty fist, his eyes bloodshot.

"You..." the gangster roared out venomously, striking a slight blood covered finger in Sonic's direction.

"I _knew_ I recognised you from somewhere... Sonic the Hedgehog!" he boomed, announcing it like some high overlord to the entire present establishment, that sharp tongue of his cocking up Max's own grin.

The crowd gasped, most in confusion as word of Sonic and co's adventures and plight had not fully made it this far, yet with some even applauding the blue hedgehog's amazing victory over the much disliked gambler with an iron fist.

"You are those rogue criminals that Robotnik is ever so keen to get his fifthly hands on... Ha-ha. I'd get a pretty penny for you lot... " the villain smirked, which wasn't intimidating Sonic and the rest at all, who were already in battle stances.

Deciding not to stick around for the ensuring rumble ahead, with some of the crowd quickly dispersed back into the main hall, with some leaving the casino immediately, having seen or been at the end of a gang attack or turf war before.

"So you're heard of us then, well for you slime breath but were outta here. Ciao!" Sonic stated simply, the blue emerald steely grasped in his hand.

"Oh no you don't!" the slippery villain shrieked, aiming a punch at the cerulean hedgehog's face.

However, unfortunately for him, a swift kick to the head, courtesy of Miss Bunnie Rabbot, rendered the notorious Max Gamble unconscious to the world and then the joyous cheers returned from outside and in.

Laughter was thrown about too as Max Gamble's ever loyal and steadfast blonde females and some males dragged him out of the backdoor in a comedic hurry.

The freedom fighters were even offered a private party by the manager himself, who'd always been scared witless by Max Gamble's baseless threats, but they declined and offered it over to the casino's paying guests.

And with an excited a roar that the crowd gave off in response, how could you say no?

* * *

**Outside CASINOPOLIS / Station Square / Western Sector / 22:12 PM**

Through the glass entrance doors they came out and onto the granite paved streets which were dimly lit by the black night's stars, and so, with the grey Chaos Emerald still in Sonic's steely grasp, he and the gang transverse their way back to their friend's place and rest for the coming day's trials.

They were one emerald down, and now only five remained... The race was indefinitely ON.

* * *

**Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream**

* * *

And thus ends the ninth chapter of this story arc!

_Note I have no real idea of how real poker is played i.e. without the use of cards, so I went for the easier option here, so sue me! _

_It's not like they were playing for anything other than the Chaos Emerald anyway, the rings were just there as an extra bonus and means of temptation after all._

* * *

I hope you enjoyed this, and the chapters so far, any comments or ratings would be nice and appreciated! -

'**Reuniting with Friends' is the next chapter, starring Amy Rose and the Freedom Fighters.**

Take care ya'll **smiley face**


	11. Reuniting With Friends, Part I

**Disclaimer**: _I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

_Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "**Change The World**" by ARTIST Dream_

_

* * *

  
_

**CHAPTER 10: Reuniting with Friends, Part 1**

**STATION SQUARE / Shopping District / 10:38 AM**

It came out of the clouds like a primed missile, coated in demonic crimson and bearing the familiar egg shaped insignia and whilst it didn't grind the city to a halt as such, it still rendered it in awed silence [for they had never heard of Robotnik before this far away from South Island].

Of course for Amy Rose it was like an impending nightmare and her shopping now littered her feet, her hands shaking as she was still rooted to the spot.

_Doctor Robotnik?! What is he doing all the way out here?_

_And if he's here then are the others here too, like Sonic and Tails…? _

"Hmm? What's that blue… blur… coming from the sky…? Oh no please don't hurt me!" the young rosette began in quiet wonder before increasing in tone to that of a heightened shriek as a small blue blur fall from the sky like a shooting star.

Before she knew it however [or could raise her hands up in mild defence] the blurred object collided with her head and knocked her down to the ground like a decent thrown tennis ball would if it'd hit you in the noggin.

"Ohh… What happened?" she spoke drearily, rubbing at the ache now developing in her forehead.

With eyes now open and focused it was then that she saw what had fallen into her sprawled out on the ground ahead of her and she let out a gasp, forgetting her mild pains immediately as she hastily picked it up into her arms.

The blue blur turned out to be a light blue coloured Flicky bird, which had golden yellow legs and beck and a peculiar rectangular lime locket around its neck.

It didn't seem to want to be cradled like so however as mere moments later the tiny bird began to flap his wings repeatedly as if expecting that he would just rise into the air and then looking disappointed when that didn't work.

"Hey, hey… It's ok little guy, I won't hurt you… but your wings were probably bruised and hurt from your fall." Amy began saying to reassure the struggling bird, and was pleasantly surprised when said bird actually began to not only stop fidgeting but cooing sweet bird sounds as it was held, which only caused her to smile warmly.

Silent moments pasted as the pink hedgehog let the Flicky get used to her touch before walking slowly down the street, her ground spread shopping completely gone from mind.

"Hey wait a minute…" she said absent mindly, pausing in mid stride and turning to the blue Flicky in question, as she began remembering a lingering supplant of information that she'd heard Tails drone on about once after an adventure.

"… Don't Flickies such as you all come from Flickies Island? If so… then why are you so far out from home little guy-"

_*BANG, trod, BANG, trod…*_

"Oh no, it's one of Robotnik's robots!" Amy screamed in panic, running as fast as she could away from the green boxed shaped behemoth with red eyes that'd landed right before her and the Flicky, and down the half deserted street.

"Sorry… Excuse me… Let me pass, please… I'm in a hurry!" she said somewhat impatiently but in as much politeness as she felt she could muster currently, as she pushed and squeezed past people on the street, which was a very different ballgame as to what Zero, the Robotnik creation that was pursuing them was doing, as he tossed people aside and caused a small panicked stampede to ensure.

She looked behind her and saw that the robot was gaining distance; they couldn't outrun him forever, so they needed to come up with a plan of some mind.

_Where to go, where to hide… somewhere local… _

_Dammit Amy, think wisely for a change!_

"Let's go little guy, I know just where to go," she said reassuringly to calm the frightened curled up bird in her arms, _I just hope it's not busy today…_ she thought nervously, as she bit gently down on her lip.

And sprinting as hard as she could, thinking to herself that if she imagined him to be at where they were going that her legs would move faster and faster because of it, it didn't help too much though however due to her fairly relaxed city lifestyle [casual exercising was just not the same as going out on Freedom Fighter missions…], but they managed to reach their destination in a good enough time nevertheless.

The robot had vanished for the time being at least, which allowed Amy to take in a deep breath and walk casually in, the bird still cradled in her arms like a small child.

* * *

**AMBER'S RESTAURANT / Downtown / Southern Sector / Station Square / 10:47 AM**

The décor floor of the small but clean restaurant was covered in white and cream triangular tiles, with its moderately sized tables and chairs made of light golden pinewood and had a warm homely smell about it from all the cooking going on in the kitchen out back.

As Amy had hoped it wasn't at all busy today, probably due to the commotion Robotnik's ship caused earlier, she thought abit glumly as she and the Flicky bird sat down to an empty table and seat.

"That was a close one eh?" she said, before realising that a name would be far better to call the bird rather than an 'it' etc.

"Say do you have a name little guy?" she said to the Flicky whom was no walking slowly about on the table face, and getting used to moving again.

_*Tweet, tweet, tweet!*_

"Never mind that then…" she said, laughing, not knowing the language of 'tweet'.

After a few moments thought a light bulb blinked in her head.

"I know! I'll call you Crystal, is that okay with you?" the rosette hedgehog said calmly and gently to the light blue mist coloured Flicky.

_*Tweet, tweet, tweet!*_

And you didn't need to know the language of birds to tell that this Flicky was happy with its new deemed 'name', with its eyes wide and glistening, and its happy sounding tweets.

Crystal had instinctively started flapping her wings, causing Amy to cry out quietly in concerned alarm and grasp the little bird, eyes closed.

"Don't overexert yourself Crystal or you'll make the pains worse!" she said, trying to gently to hold her down.

Suddenly Crystal stopped flapping and instead stared down Amy right in her eyes, and in those avian eyes looked to be that of a silent plea, in that it wanted to try to fly again, with or without even this new friends permission.

An echo of the memories of the day she left Knothole caused her to nod and let go, for she in that moment was restricting and holding someone else back just as she'd felt that the other Freedom Fighters had been with her…

So to push back those conflicted she focused back on the situation at hand, "Don't flap as deeply…and pull back your legs," she kindly advised in a soft tone as the newly deemed 'Crystal' tried once again to fly.

The light blue Flicky starred at her, taking in what it could understand before nodding happily, levelling out her wings more and giving shorter, more frequent thrusts. She dropped to the ground once more and Amy was about to catch her, but this time when Crystal next pushed off, she was solidly airborne.

Crystal the Flicky looked elated, and Amy couldn't help but be too and with her arms out stretched she gently held onto Crystal's feet and they spun around slowly, laughing and chirping happily all the while.

* * *

"Hmm, someone looks like they're having a good time… who's your new bird-friend Amy?" a kind and teasing voice came from behind them, causing the frolicking to cease.

"Oh Amber, I'm sorry! I didn't see you there…" Amy spoke rapidly, tumbling over her words and brushing down her skirt absent mindly. "Me and Crystal here were just hiding you see…" she continued on, in a slower and more composed voice, trying all the while to make the recapped story not sound as farfetched as it'd probably sound to most.

"Hiding you say, but from whatever what Amy honey?" the long auburn haired, green eyed and mid twenties human female enquired, raising an amused eyebrow.

"We were being chased by a robot that came down from-"

_*BANG, trod, BANG, trod…*_

"Oh no… Amber, Crystal duck!" she exclaimed quickly, little above a whisper as she too ducked down under the table, looking out at the see through glass panels that made most of the entrance door.

It was as the robot [that we all know as Zero], looked inside the restaurant briefly before then waltzing on past that she really took his details in;

It was a great, lumbering and blocky robot, of a dark lime green variety, which stood at just over double Amy's height. It had giant like black hands, a shiny silver chest plate and strips of red at its wrists, upper chest and at the bottom of its tall, cylindrical head.

At the centre of the aforementioned head was a golden, clear hexagonal shape, which held both the offensive and defensive capabilities, Amy figured. It was either that or the blue, circular scope with silver lining that hand on its right, black shoulder pipe. Dark, pinkish red eyes were surrounded by a yellowish gold pipe lining, giving it a creepy, nostalgic pinball like appearance, for some reason Amy [and my author's mind] couldn't fathom right now.

When the coast was clear, Amy and Crystal clambered out from under the table, ruffling off any cluster of dust accumulated down there, in their respective fashions.

* * *

"Good golly, just what was _that_ Amy?" the startled voice of Amber came from behind them.

Turning around and gazing into her friends wide, green eyes not only confirmed the fear that'd resided in her voice for her own safety, but for Amy herself as well. It gave the rosette hedgehog the uncomfortable, guilty knot-tied feeling one gets when they feel bad about involving a loved one in complicated, awkward or otherwise downright dangerous situations, that were of their own fault.

Still, she had given her a place to stay and she'd been about to tell her all about Robotnik's ship in the sky and the obvious robot chase-master it'd left behind, before the aforementioned interrupted anyway so she put on a reassuring smile and spoke her mind.

"Well… As I was gonna say before tin-head flew past, I'm definitely sure that he's one of Robotnik's cronies, he looks like a bigger Badnik. You know the ones the mad egghead I told you and the others about before created?"

Amber didn't reply, just nodded, prompting her to go on forth for she knew all of the wickedness Amy's cherished one fought against, way over the ocean… The red head had never heard of such despicableness, except for whatever foul man had worked her parents to their early graves… Though the fact that he most likely was in and around Station Square was unnerving, just what could a mad man be seeking here of all places?

Unbeknown to Amy [or anyone else on the hero side for that matter], this robot was one of Robotnik's newest guard robots and the first robot of its kind, deemed E-100 'alpha' of the new E-Series line of robots. But its proper title was ZERO.

"So after the ship overflew the city awhile ago this little cutie comes right on down out of nowhere and SMACK!" Amy continued, pointing to Crystal. "It was like getting pummelled in a handbag grabbing war down in the city centres during a big sale, just not as hard thankfully!" she chuckled, petting Crystal who was now happily perched on her right shoulder.

"Hehe, I see, well I'll tell you one thing…" Amber began sternly.

"If that lumbering mass of nuts and bolts had come in here for you two then I'd of let him have it with my broom, my pans of boiling water and the rest!" she exclaimed with passionate pride, rising up from her tabletop sit.

"Well, at least you two aren't hurt but hey, business calls," Amber said with a little sigh, noting the dozen or so customers that'd come in the last minute or so, or had they been there before she'd seen Amy and Crystal? She couldn't remember.

_I really do need to train my brain memory up to above average levels one of these days, even if I have to burrow one of Zack's gaming machines to do it_, she thought diligently.

* * *

"… Would you love the usual, strawberry milkshake?" she mused to Amy from behind the nearby counter. "And a separate bowl for Crystal…?" she added thereafter,

"I'd love one, thanks!" Amy said excitedly, her body having de-stressed itself out from talking to Amber, but then that was always the case with her.

_I guess losing your loved ones, especially your parents; can sometimes make wonderful people even more wonderful with healing time. [It's amazing how she can remain so positive and strong through all that's happened to her family…] I wish I could say the same_, ending her thought on a sad note and instead of thinking anymore of it she diverted her attention to Crystal, namely to the golden locket hung around her neck.

"Hey there Crystal, what's that you've got there around your neck? Am I allowed to have a look…?" she said in a friendly tone, pointing to the object in question.

Crystal nodded her small, feathered head downward with a pleasant resounding chirp, allowing Amy to carefully take the locket off and into the palm of her hand.

It was surprisingly light for such a big object [in comparison to Crystal], which surprised Amy somewhat and also the glimmer brought back older, more pleasant memories as she held it.

_Its surface is so shiny, such a rich gold… It also reminds me of all the mobian Rings that are scattered all across the planet that Sonic, Tails and everyone collects as a clean energy source._

_Could someone [or something] have melted some down and crafted it into this?_

It was an interesting thought, but she knew it was something she'd never find out, so whilst lightly trailing a lone finger above the lockets opening seal, she then silently mouthed if she could open it, using her batting eyes to direct Crystal to it.

A polite nod and curious azure eyes watched Amy as she opened her birdie friends' prized possession, and inside it was a golden lined, framed photograph of three Flicky birds, a dark pink ones, Crystal, and a lime green one respectively. They all looked very happy together, that much was obvious.

_But then just what happened to them both…?_ Amy thought in concern, praying deeply that Crystal wasn't also another outcast orphan like she and the Worthington's were.

_I won't stand for it! And neither should Crystal…_

_Although… Since she escaped from that ship of Robotnik's, perhaps they could still be held captive there...? _

"We might still be able to save your family from roboticization or becoming a Badnik yet Crystal!" she exclaimed with proud determination, an adventurer's heart awakening within her for the first time in over a year.

A determined chirp from her sealed the deal, and after telling Amber of their plans and saying goodbye, the duo left the bustling restaurant and deeper into the city to look for some clues.

* * *

**STATION SQUARE / Central Sector / 11:38 AM**

Not having much to go on in regards to the location of Robotnik's new airship, the rosette hedgehog had sat down on a park bench next to a water fountain [the very same that Knuckles himself had been in not long ago], and consulted her tarot cards.

She'd got them long ago from a special stranger back in her home city of Mercia [before Robotnik's coup of the planet], and whilst she wasn't psychic herself she had an uncanny talent with reading them. It was also for her own good that she'd sternly promised herself to never use them irresponsibly and to use them only if all else fails [just think how tempting a certain question about a blue hero would've been?]

But still she needed _some_ guidance, however little, and so she took them out, closing her mind from everyone around her except for Crystal, who was surprisingly quiet and intrigued by her actions.

The cards themselves were your typical rectangular shaped ones, albeit taller than regular old playing cards and more vibrant in colour and designs. She'd been given them by a woolly mystic a few years ago who'd deemed her 'worthy' of having them, the pack consisted of:

_0 - The Fool  
1 - The Magician  
2 - The High Priestess  
3 - The Empress  
4 - The Emperor  
5 - The Hierophant / Pope  
6 - The Lovers  
7 - The Chariot  
8 - Strength  
9 - The Hermit  
10 - Wheel of Fortune  
11 - Justice  
12 - The Hanged Man  
13 - Death  
14 - Temperance  
15 - The Devil  
16 - The Tower  
17 - The Star  
18 - The Moon  
19 - The Sun  
20 - Judgement  
21 - The World / Universe  
_

Closing her eyes and letting her mind [and hands] wander, and after a brief hazy, blue memory of her first usage of them passed through her mind, she eventually picked out three cards by her innate 'spiritual guidance'.

The first card she turned over was 'The Fool', which Amy quickly deduced as an insult to her being, before realising that was a childish reaction and thought it through some more.

She figured it meant that firstly, it represented her, but in that the personal depiction was to show that she was a spirit who was still in search of life experience [which was true, it'd been one reason she'd come to Station Square in the first place after all]. Other possible meanings included; that it foreshadowed a 'leap of faith' into the unknown or that significant change was imminent.

'The Priestess' was the second card of the trio, who was said to bestow great wisdom upon thy novices so that they can grow and develop, either into a greater understanding of the self [and the realm around them] or into madness… A deeper of something could thus be coming soon.

And finally, the last card was 'The Hanged Man', much to Amy's dismay, who'd secretly yearned for 'The Lovers'. But alias… the relevance of this card was a mystery, a very enigmatic and troubling mystery. It was collectively associated with life and sacrifice, be it for the greater good or greater gain. Serenely dangling upside-down, the Hanged Man has let go of worldly attachments. He has sacrificed a desire for control over his circumstances in order to gain an understanding of, and communion with, creative energies far greater than his individual self. He is the initiate into mysteries as he understands the Truth because he sees it from a different angle.

_Hopefully I don't have to wait too long to find out what this one means_, she thought, trying to focus her will on the final readings to a happy conclusion, so that she and Crystal could get going.

After a few minutes had passed, from her silent mediation she aroused and she' deduced that the chosen cards had told her, pretty much, to head towards the beach for a pleasant 'surprise', which sounded abit like those silly Horoscopes that were scarcely ever right she had to admit, but since when was there a time that the cards were ever _wrong_?

* * *

**STATION SQUARE / Central Sector / 11:56 AM**

It was high noon in central Station Square and it was bustling with life, the joyful cries of nearby school children, the idle chatter of work colleagues and friends on their lunch breaks and the annoying flares of cellular phone calls rang through the air, which was something Amy was far too used to it now to really differentiate it from any normal day.

For her however, this day was far from normal, and the rolls of normality were going to remain prohibited for a while longer yet. So today she noticed it all, really took it in, and it was a trifle deafening. Even Crystal seemed to agree by the way she covered her bird ears, so the rosette hedgehog decided to make way towards the beach and gather her thoughts.

The blue Flicky whirled playfully around her head and Amy was playing chase and her momentum flung her in the direction of the beach hotel. Her eyes were closed, her smile joyous as she ran carefree, just for a bit, and it was then that she it, heard _them_.

She abruptly skidded to a halt, and bit uneasily on her lower lip and tuned in, hugging the train station's wall to a cornerstone, simply paranoid about peeking round the corner….

A soft yet valiant voice fluttered in the breeze, followed by a bubbly southern one, a posh foreign one, a coarse and soft one, a youthful one and… Everything seemed to be getting louder all of a sudden. _Who's making all that racket, can't you see I'm trying to listen in here and deduce whether I'm a crazy or not_, she thought. She sighed in frustration. The voices were becoming muddled now, and someone else was speaking now. _That warm, lovable yet cocky tone…_ it couldn't be. It just _couldn't_ be. Could it?

The hedgehog collapsed onto the ground, a valiant Crystal tweeting at her, worriedly, but Amy couldn't hear. All she could her was the drumming sound, which was none other than the increased pumping of blood within her she'd realised, which in turn was making her head spin.

The how's, the whys and what ifs rattled through her until she couldn't stand it anymore, so absent mindly she brought Crystal close to her in a hug, stroked her head feathers reassuringly, took a deep breath and trailed her eyes around the cornerstone.

* * *

There, outside the Beach Hotel, there they all were. Simply be, as though it was a normal occurrence. Waves of nostalgia filled my head, and I felt slight trace of a grin light my face.

They were _here_.

Her insides churned. _Were they here to find me? No… It's been over a year now. A few months since they last sent any mail to me… They couldn't care less about me, and I don't blame them for running out on them like that. No, they're here for something else, but what?_

_I should just go over and see how they are, what could it hurt…?_ she thought, before voicing this to Crystal. As if she had exceptional gifts of empathy, the Flicky gave its best nodding action and pointed over to where the Freedom Fighter gang were still standing.

Coming back to reality, and with Crystal in tow and a smile on her face, she began a slow and unsteady walk over, trying not to rush on over or sneak too slowly up to them and scare them before she was seen-

"Amy? Hey, AMY!"

_Drat…_ Amy stopped in mid-stride. _Should've figured he'd see me first, he always did have the best hearing out of us all, I swear._ The huge smile did not betray how nervous she was or how much she wanted to tug on Tails ear and shout at him somewhere private for ruining her entrance. And the fox was running toward her now. They'd be no stopping him. And she didn't want to, as she'd missed the little geek too.

"It iz her, zay iz no mistaking such a pink hedgehog. Amy, mademoiselle, over here!"

Milliseconds later, a few pounds of fox-boy ploughed into her, hugging her rather awkwardly just above the waist. [She was more woman than girl since they'd last since each other by now after all]. Thankfully, it didn't last too long as he'd already began spewing off questions to her, such as why she moved to this city and what's she been doing here this whole time. Oddly enough, he was asking all the questions apart from one.

Why did you run away from us for no reason at all?

* * *

Everyone else had noticed now and whilst walking slowly on over to them, Amy begin taking in their reactions more clearly.

Bunnie, the ever optimist and good laugh, was just behind Antoine and hollering a hearty greeting whilst smiling that infectious smile. _She looks happy to see me, even Antoine, and we hardly ever spoke back then. Did I fit a niche in this group after all? [And if so, can they tell me what it was…?]_

She was shaking Antoine's overzealous hand whilst also being pinned close to Bunnie's chest when she heard another familiar voice.

"It's been a long time, Amy. How are you doing?"

Give or take a year ago and she'd have sprung into a bickering match with the owner of the regal voice, but today, the loss feelings in her legs and the soaring excitement in her heart just made her want to run over and hug Sally, despite the fact that she is [_was?_] competition for Sonic. The auburn haired Princess didn't look an ounce pompous [as she imagined she'd be, had they'd met again like this], her azure eyes only gave away a resonance of curiosity, which was good enough for Amy, for the time being.

_Hopefully we won't butt heads today_, she inwardly groaned, _like we usually do when it comes to-_

"Amy…?"

_-Sonic…? _

The first few months had been hard for he'd been ever-present in her dreams, but sometime thereafter it _had _[surprisingly to her] gotten easier with Amber, Zack and Lisa's continued help and presence in her new lease of life, and he'd become mired by fog in her dreams. Not that she'd forgotten him, I mean who could if you'd had the luck to have met him? But he wasn't hadn't been constantly on her mind, which had probably been for the best, she reluctantly figured. It's not like they were ever going to meet up again anytime soon. _Or so she'd also assumed._

And whilst she'd changed and matured, he still looked the same [not that that was a bad thing].

Cool streaks of light blue caught in-between his dark cerulean streamlined [and ever groomed] spines in the rays of the afternoon sun, giving him a radiating roguish angel-like appearance. To her he'd always been like that, daring, cocky and yet supremely heroic, and always skating the fine line between angelic and devilish actions [as deemed by general society]. Sonic was a knight of the wind, and no one controlled the wind…

He also wasn't one for dressing up in regular clothing [bar his trademark sneakers and gloves], but it wasn't something that bothered her or those who knew him. Amy never had figured out the exact Mobian civil standards on those who wore clothes and those that didn't, even back from her young days in Mercia. _I guess that's just another stray difference between Mobians and Humans, and one that doesn't need explanation_, she inwardly shrugged off.

A cosmetic blend of crisp red and white made up the bulk of the aforementioned shoes, but there was also something different about them this time from a year previous… In that they now sported a little gold buckle at the side. _How 'kawaii' as Lisa liked to put cute things._

He must've bought some nice ones and [finally] worn the other ones out, or something. I'll have to ask him about it later [_if I can ever get some words out_].

Sonic the hedgehog was looking at her now with mild concern, his eyes struggling to not remain downcast.

_Oh, no. I've embarrassed him. Probably embarrassed them all… Do I look no better to them than I was before? _

_If so, did we have to run into each other now? Why not later when I'm better prepared [to say sorry]?_

_

* * *

  
_

Eventually their eyes met. One pair sapphire, another shining emerald, and then…

"Hey, Amy… How's it goin'…?"

The words coursed around the rosette hedgehog's space, as luxurious as the finest silk. It'd been so long since she'd been able to hear it, the cobalt blue hedgehog standing eagerly in front of her for an answer having stopped his nightly visits, flexing his hands through those gloves he never took off.

_It could be just like old times… just speak up Amy. Just speak up and be heard! _

And so she did, albeit with a stance that portrayed unresolved awkwardness. A nervous shiver running along her back as uttered her response.

"I… I am good. Great, actually!" she exclaimed, smiling really wide before then trying to make it look as if she hadn't been that happy to not be in their lives anymore. It took a few moments of silence, in which time Antoine was fidgeting with a button on his coat [to avoid said silence], before Amy spoke again, in a more general and calm tone.

"Oh, and this is Crystal… by the way," pointing out the Flicky whom was fluttering in the air by her side. Tails and Bunnie thought she looked cute, but didn't think of prying into where she'd gotten her hands on a bird as rare as a Flicky from.

"So much has happened since… I…" Amy whispered slowly.

Luckily, her trailed off statement would be saved for a later time as Sally casually stepped forward, noting that the usually bright, chirpy and at times, neck-wringing obnoxious, Amy probably wasn't going to resurface anytime soon. The awkward tensions between them all wasn't subsiding just yet [which was understandable].

"Is there anywhere that we can go and catch up, Amy?" Sally said with an even smile, lightly tapping the pink hedgehog on the shoulder as she did so.

Resisting the natural urge to flinch at the unusual physical contact with the forest princess, she nodded, grateful for the save. "Yeah… I do. Follow… me!"

And after that, the hedgehog slowly but surely started to become her rosy and talkative self again, murmuring a silent 'thank you' Sally's way as she began explaining the directions to her current abode and whom she shared it with etcetera, as they walked under the beaming summer sky.

_Perhaps the cards weren't a warning of bad omen after all, but the start of something good, my own tabula rasa..._

_

* * *

  
_

**THE WORTHINGTON FLAT / Downtown / Southern Sector / Station Square / **

**12:25 PM**

The journey there had quietened after Amy had explained titbits about her journey to the city, what happened when she got here and the brief details about her living and life arrangements.

Needless to say, the gang had been pleasantly surprised to find out that she was living in a shared, let alone that she worked as a waitress in the nearby restaurant owned by the eldest of said flatmates. Antoine's snigger at her job role didn't go unheard by Bunnie or Amy though, as the latter's glare sharply explained, yapping the coyote into silence.

_Hmm, maybe he didn't miss me that much. What a childish man…_ Amy thought. _Though, I guess I'm not one to accuse-_

"Good on ya gal!" Bunnie hollered excitedly, hugging her, and sub frequently shattering her 'thinking-space'. "We all needa work for a living eventually rosy doll; you're just one step ahead of us!"

Amy blushed at the compliment as she turned the key to 815, the household number for the Worthington Flat out of all those registered in Station Square, turned the golden brass handle and entered. After some hope-filled glances at each other, the gathered then stepped through the white oak door and into the room beyond.

* * *

About twenty minutes into Amy's guided tour of the flat in question, they returned to the main living room, which covered a fair ground with its beige carpet and had a number of unfamiliar family photos hanging up on the wall. Sonic, bristled with raising boredom and a general edgy-ness, immediately hopped onto and stretched his athletic form across the medium sized sofa in front of the average sized TV.

"Sonic, you know I'd quite like to sit down if that doesn't bother you _too_ much," Sally stressed with mild annoyance at his man piggish ways [or should that be pighog-ish ways?], taking a leaf from his book and doing his impatient foot tapping mantra. Amy had been about to raise the same point, even though she was still feeling terribly awkward around the hedgehog in particular as he was the last one she saw before she left…

"You tell that foeel what for mi princess, how _ungentle-manly - _not offering you mademoiselles the first seat!" Antoine commented agitatedly, shooing the hedgehog along the black, leather sofa with the motion of his flailing arms.

"Okie, okie, I'm sorry, I thought you guys were still on tour 101. Now… what say we get some lunch on the-" the hedgehog began, rubbing his palms together in gleeful expectation as he shifted smoothly along to make room for the others.

Another turn of a key then sounded from the door.

"-go?" Sonic finished, a little bit startled [but only a little].

The interruption however jolted Amy – whom was the only one still standing [due to not enough sofa space for them all] – into remembering that lunch recess was still on and that her two younger flatmates were either back or soon would be.

It turned out the former was correct as two figures – having been running – now stood gasping in the doorway at the scene before them with a bag of lunch-ables in their hands.

"Wow… You never told us you were having friends over Amy!" the young female teen, known by Amy as Lisa – exclaimed excitedly – running into the centre of the room so she could get a better look at them all.

"Yeah, it was a surprise to me too…" Amy began dumbfoundly.

"Hi there, my name is Lisa. What is yours?" the black haired, creamy mocha skinned 11 year old girl said impulsively, shaking the hand of the nearest [and coolest] person she could reach fairly zealously.

Bunnie was getting used to attention, from the stares the general populace had given her when they'd first entered this city, but not this kind of attention. The human girl was still shaking her normal hand and had yet to say anything about her metallic limbs. Yet being the key word, as she knew it'd be brought up eventually [it always did], but still, the initial vibes she were getting _were_ nice all the same.

"Mah name's Bunnie darling, pleased to meet yah Lisa," she replied softly before nodding and going off to greet whom she suspected was her younger sibling, the short black haired, studious looking boy with glasses still in the doorway.

_He must be shocked to see so many of us outta of the blue in one room, the poor little guy._

And being a good judge of character, Bunnie had been right on the money. The boy, who after a quiet pause had introduced himself as Zack, had done so in a fairly low tone of voice and didn't look especially comfortable for some reason or the other.

* * *

Lisa managed to get round to everyone in about thirty second's flat, receiving perplexed but amused looks and answers in return.

Antoine's eyes had looked as though they'd fall out of their sockets at the erratic headshake he received, but felt prouder [and relieved] when Lisa had made a positive comment about his 'blonde curls'.

Whereas Tails' twin tails had gotten a spin after Lisa kindly asked if he could demonstrate his flying ability for her, having been fascinated by the sound of it [and the fox boy himself] when Amy had first discovered him to her _months_ back.

Sonic had been an interesting case, for Lisa had began throwing out an excited flurry of interrogating questions like: what's your favourite movie, favourite dessert, food, where's your hometown, how fast can you go etcetera. Amy had cringed, shrivelling herself up in the corner of the room as bad she could. _I've created a monster… Or to be more precise, just another Sonic fan-girl..._ [_Am I that bad?_] it made her think on.

For the true blue hedgehog himself though, he'd coolly answered and shrugged off the questions, and seemed notably enjoyed at the attention, Amy curiously deduced.

Sally, thereafter, had been amused at the 'Forest Princess' nickname she'd given her, which must of come from Amy, she figured [though she unknowably was wrong on that point].

Taking a deep breath and settling down from her frenzy, Lisa went over and hugged Amy, whispering something in her ear as she did so. The rosette hedgehog then recalled that Sonic at least was kinda hungry, and so was she was thinking about it for a few seconds. Before she could set about doing it herself however, Lisa swiftly went off to make some lunch for Amy and her guests – at her own behest – in the connecting kitchen area, and Zack quietly snuck off to his room complaining of a headache.

_Figures that Amber's art of reading someone would rub off on her eventually…_ Amy thought, smiling a small humoured smile as she remembered how the elder female had read her the first night she'd arrived in Station Square. [_Hopefully it'll rub off on me too someday soon…_]

And so the gang were alone again, and it was then that the tension-filled water barriers finally opened.

* * *

An awkward cough came from the vicinity of the black sofa, re-routing her back to reality. Now was the inevitable question time.

Unsurprisingly it was Sonic who'd initiated it, and looking at him now she was having trouble remembering a time where she'd seen her look so serious _and_ visibly upset. Sure he'd have his moments of serious-time, when he needed to have them, but he for the most part never let his emotions get the better of him. _He's strong like that_, she thought. _But then, I guess we all have our weaknesses [?] at times…_

Before she could delve into it all anymore the hedgehog finally uttered the question she'd avoided answering in her returning letters since she'd left, in an alien-sounding whisper of what she knew as his unique voice.

"Why…why did you leave us Amy?"

His green eyes were locked again with hers, burring into hers, searching for an answer – an absolute truth.

_I have to come clean_, her inner conscience primed. _They all deserve to know the truth and it's time how prove how mature I've grown in our time apart. How I'm not the same little girl anymore. _

Still, the words echoed around in her head, making it hard to focus on exactly what she wanted to say, what she _had_ to say. And she was aware that they were looking at her, and could see that she was frozen to the spot. The words themselves didn't hurt and cause the fastened beating of her heart, but moreover on how selfish and childish she'd been.

_A few moments were all I needed._ But as I got brought visually the words together in my mind's eye, I almost forgot to breathe, and I probably wouldn't have had a voice at the back of my head not reminded me of this core fact of living. _Breathe in, breathe out… _I slowly repeated in my head. Everyone else continued to stand ahead of me, holding their gazes in a deafening silence and waiting expectantly, blissfully aware of the small mental battle I was fighting within my head.

It felt like it'd been a couple of minutes but gazing at the wall clock it'd only been about thirty seconds.

Reflecting back on it all had brought back the feelings I'd felt that day, and they swiftly swirled about inside my head as if it were a tornado. I could barely hold myself up as a wave of nausea swept over me, but before I knew it, I knew exactly what to say.

I was finally ready, to begin anew.

And in an even calm tone, with shining determination in her eyes she spoke the verses from her heart, honestly and true.

"I… I left Knothole, you guys because… because I didn't feel that I was needed. You all have your own niche to fill as Freedom Fighters, but what was mine? Those last few missions and that day especially… I was just getting in the way so I felt like I was the one who'd always be left behind. It was rash, I _know_, but I knew that I just had to get away so I could have the time I needed to mature some more. I hope you don't all hate me for what I said and did…"

I breathed in and out, my eyes too blurred by tears now, despite my initial hard resolve not to, to see their reactions, but I croaked out the last precious words nevertheless.

"I'm so sorry."

I never even heard them move. Quickly I went to wipe my eyes with my arms but a warm and comforting hand grabbed my own, placed a bundle of tissues in them and closed my hand inwards gently.

I felt myself smiling at the figure kneeling down to me on the floor now, and so I wiped my eyes down and the haze cleared.

* * *

There they were, all kneeled down and surrounding me. Bunnie was by my side, having been the one to have given me the tissues, whereas Tails was hugging me now, telling me it'd be alright and that I had nothing to be sorry for. 'You'll always be one of us' came happily to mind from what I could make out from his now muffled musings.

Antoine, always the awkward one was knelt down at my right side – near but not too close – his eyes sombre. _He doesn't know what to say, typical Antoine_, I thought, sparing a glance between him and Bunnie. Sally however was right in front of me, with Sonic bringing up the rear, looking as sad as I'd ever seen him and lost for words…

Her eyes were brazen blue, steely but warm, but there was something else there, deeper back, a speck of something… _Is it familiarity? But how? What could she know…?_ I wondered.

"Amy…" she began, slowly, softy. "I know how pretentious this will probably sound, but we never hated you or thought you were of no value to us. Sure your antics with Sonic could be rather childish at times…" she said sternly. _It stung badly, but then the truth always does, right?_ "-but you're our friend, and when you actually put your mind to things you could be quite creative – remember back in the Mystic Cave Zone with Captain Plunder?"

Of course I remembered that, it'd be rather hard _not_ to remember that crazy captain and his motley crew! _They reeked for one…_ And it brought a wider smile back to my face that she of all them still remembered that, especially considering how bratty I was with her in the beginning, and at the end…

"Yeah, of course I do. Who couldn't?" I smirked. And if I wasn't mistaken, I think I could see the beginnings of a smirk creep onto hers too. _Ah, there it is! She looks nice when she smiles. She should do it more often… _"I managed to prevent an all out brawl between you and his crew by having us give him details on Robotnik's luxurious airships for him to plunder. No pun intended," I chuckled.

"See? You are of value, you just need to train yourself and realise it. We're not superheroes you know, we all started somewhere," Sally praised me, her hand gently squeezing my right shoulder as she did so. I wasn't so sure about the non-superheroes part, especially when it came to Sonic, who _had_ been born with supersonic speed. But the rest he mustered on his own; she was right on that front. _I guess I just need to train myself more like she says…_

_Wait, does that mean… that they might allow me to come back? _

Flashes of mop[s] of gorgeous ginger, medium-length black and short black hair appeared in my mind eye. _Amber… Lisa… Zack… Could I even bring myself to leave them now?_

"Thank you guys, thank you…" I whispered lamely over and over, if just to get it out of my system as soon as possible.

It was then that I noticed that Sonic was lingering a few short strides ahead of me, his pose very awkward. My heart thought it was cute, him being all shy, but my head was beginning to race with anxiety. _Why hadn't he spoken yet?_ Even Antoine had made an effort to say he was sorry, even if it was versed through his actions than words.

_Did he even want to speak to me now?_

Taking on board the beacon of hope that Sally and the others had nursed into me, I decided to take a deep breath and wait it out. _Whatever happens, happens…_

_

* * *

  
_

He hesitated for a few moments before speaking. His eyes travelled briefly to the small, black wooden tea table in front of the TV, which had various animal engravings on its face.

"Amy…" he said softly, sombrely, kneeling to the ground to meet my level. I looked dead ahead into his emerald hues and listened intently. "I never meant to hurt you or tell you to go away…" Flashes of his contorted angry face and of me running out of his home back in Knothole crossed my mind briefly, making me wince a little. "No matter how angry or annoying each of us was being to one another, it doesn't excuse my actions that day. Please accept my apology," he said clearly and sincerely.

He extended out his hand and looked at me, really looked at me for the first time since I'd bumped into them all again. His eyes were slightly duller than usual, the sparkle gone and a sombre radiance in its place. Obviously he'd been hurt by his actions and my prompt leaving, whether it was because he saw me as a friend like the others or… _[As if, Amy!]_

Regardless of that slightly perplexing thought I shook it away into the recesses of my mind, allowed a great beaming smile to cross my features and gently took his right hand.

"You don't need to apologise Sonic, I was being a real nuisance," He was about to retort, but I hushed him up with a raised hand and continued. "Don't get all soppy on us now, true blue," I cheekily said. I knew he'd understand, for it was witty, somewhat like his own sense of humour.

The smirk that brightened up his face confirmed my assumption.

"Thanks Amy."

"No problem." I stood up and turned to face them all, and dusted down my skirt. "So… what are you guys doing in the city anyway? It obviously wasn't just to see me." I asked them, the question having been on my mind since I'd seen them [and knocked back a fair few recesses from shock and anxiety]. _Was it something to do with that airship…?_

"We have all afternoon to get to that Amy doll," Bunnie began happily, and Amy wondered for a second just what they had been doing since they'd got here, they did look more tired than usual. "So why don't yah fill us in more on what else you've been doing, apart from your job? I'm sure Lisa must be almost done with lunch."

* * *

Five minutes later, they were all, true to Bunnie's reasoning, sat down on the wooden dinner table that lay in-between the archway separating the living room and kitchen area. At the very back of the room were two sliding panes of thick glass that served as the patio, or in this case the balcony doors to the outside space. The smells of the various blooms that hung along the edges and over the balcony entrance served to provide a more natural smell and feel to the otherwise plain and constricted flat space. The balcony doors were slightly ajar to allow for some air circulation, which is why the Freedom Fighters could smell it. Even Sonic had to admit it was nice.

And at this moment the azure hedgehog and Lisa were lying sprawled out on the floor in order to allow Amy some sit down time, who was telling the rest of her Station Square tale.

"I've been taking up swimming two or three times a week down at the local swim centre, I was never very good at good at taking to water when I was younger, but I'm a lot better now I think," Amy said; now back in a bubblier mood.

"And she's been doing archery down at the local sports club too," Lisa interjected. "She's real good at it."

"Yeah, I guess I'm alright, "Amy said modestly. "It must be my Mercian blood. Oh, and I've been practising with my hammer down in the Mystic Ruins too on some of the lone trees and rocks. So let's just say, I doubt I'm well loved amongst the wildlife over there!" she joked. Everyone chuckled at that, trying to imagine just how anything could withstand the young girl's wrath.

"And just doing things that most normal girls do really, like dining out, going to the cinema…"

"And flirting with boys?" Bunnie chimed.

"Wha…? No! Not at all!" Amy blushed a peachy red in protest. She really hadn't seen any Mobians that had taken her fancy [Humans x Mobians was widely frowned upon by both species, after all]. She'd still been dealing with burying her feelings for Sonic back then…

Sally, meanwhile, felt a nagging slice of something materialise in her mind as she watched the ongoing exchanges. It had no real form but it felt prickly and reminded her of vivid greens. _Greens… Envy? Am I envious of Amy? But why, why would I be jealous of her…?_

_Because she is free to live her life, unlike you_, her subconscious muttered darkly.

She winced immediately inwardly, shrugging the thought away with haste. It couldn't be true, could it? She was more disciplined and mature than this, had been raised to be.

_Still, maybe I… am a little envious. She's made a nice peaceful life here, full of freedom, that none of us can have right now. Maybe we never will. And yet she probably still carves the life we have, especially regarding me and Sonic… [Not that that means anything, at all]_

_If only she knew just how hard it is to keep up with the façade you must develop as a leader is. _

She sighed, and resigned her thoughts and started refocusing on reality once again.

"Yah see Amy doll? You're not ah niche in our team, we don't have any long-range fighters here for one so your bow & arrows would be perfect for that position. And let's not forget your Piko-Piko Hammer… If you mastered both of those then you'd be a real beast on the field, as a close and long-ranged fighter!" Bunnie explained with an aura of pride as well as absolute sincerity, to Amy Rose.

Amy's brain jolted with a spark as the wave of information was processed, and as the pieces fell together in her mind, Amy realised that they fit _perfectly_. Like a spark to pierce the dark, her southern belle friend had come up thumps again.

She'd never thought of her new found hobbies [and rediscovered ones from her youth] like that before. They had been ways to pass the time in the beginning really, and to enable her less time to feel guilty and become displacement. _But maybe… deep down, she'd been subconsciously training herself for the day she returned to them…?_

It was an interesting thought, the rosette hedgehog mused, it was definitely that…


	12. Reuniting With Friends, Part II

**Disclaimer**: _I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

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**CHAPTER 10: Reuniting with Friends, Part 2**

**THE WORTHINGTON FLAT / Downtown / Southern Sector / Station Square /18:33 PM**

Hours had passed and the Freedom Fighters had returned from their brief excursion to Tail's Mystic Ruin house to make some last minute touches to their Chaos Emerald tracker and to dress themselves up for dinner.

As for me, Amy Rose, I'd opted to stay behind and help Amber cook. She'd come in not long after they'd left for the ruins and was pleasantly surprised when I told her my news. Sparkles of emerald flowed through her eyes, complimenting her fair skin and vivid ginger-red, bun held-up hair. _Oh my, what are you up to now Amber?_ I thought, recognising that slightly mischief trait that came to the surface now and again. Over the last year in fact, I'd noticed that it was almost as though she _suppressed_ it most of the time, only allowing her more child-like persona to surface on a blue moon [or so it seemed]. It was interesting.

The kitchen by the way was unlike the roughed, beige carpet of the living room, and consisted of marble white tiles with black triangles in-between the lines. The worktop was of a dark greyish specked design and simple, with a wooden container holding all the need be kitchen tools, and there was also the usual sink, black coloured oven and stove and the usual kitchen essentials all fitted in. And as I fried and marinated the vegetables and pasta shell mix together in the pan, I let my thoughts wander some.

_I guess, losing their folks so young was always bound to leave some effect on the older as well as the younger, perhaps even moreso. Why do such things happen to nice people? It's unfair…_

The opening of the front door and Amber's calling again snapped me out of my mind bubble. I really was being an airy fairy today!

The steam in the kitchen was reaching a peak so I opened the nearby window and turned the pan down to a simmer setting. And wiping the sweat off my brow, I patted down my summer garden themed apron and walked into the living room.

Waiting for me inside was a mass parade of tie dinner jacket males and girls in long dresses.

_Wow, they sure put in a load of effort for me. Even for a bunch of people they don't really know yet._

My eyes glanced over Bunnie first, who was wearing a dark lavender cocktail dress, which also served to cover up her brown boots underneath. She never did like to wear 'girly heels' that much I recalled in mild amusement. Still, I found myself gawking and becoming a little self-conscious, I was only wearing a cooking apron; a bubble sleeved green top and a frilly red dress after all! _I wonder… if Antoine has gotten a clue yet?_

Looking over at Antoine's form, and him patting the non-existent dust off his black tie-dinner jacket, almost like he had a case of OCD, and stealing glances Bunnie's way, I knew that he hadn't. I sighed inwardly. Will there ever be some love-love in this team, especially when they're so _obvious_?

The Princess of Acorn herself wore dark blue heeled shoes [alike her typical boots in shoe form] and a simple non-sleeved dark green night dress that came all the way down to the ground, her short auburn hair combed to a nice lavish finish. In short, the girls really came up trumps. _Well, except for me_, she sighed to herself. _Oh well, nothing I can do now._

The other guys were also in black tie-dinner jackets, with Rotor looking more gentleman than scientist today and Tails looking adorably cute, even as he fidgeted in the get-up. _I know just how you feel Tails… I really do. Back then I always had to dress up lavishly. Back in Mercia…_

Sonic came over and helped adjust Tails' jacket again, and boy, did he look smokin' [to quote something I'd heard some youths say in the city once or thrice]. It was then that the room began getting hazy. _Wow, it sure is getting hot in here… Who'd have figured that simply dressing up in some attire would make him so dashing? Or fluster me so? _

I guess that would make anyone and everyone really…

_Get a grip on yourself girl! It's just dinner, it's not a date! They've barely been back in my life for little more than six hours or so and I've already fallen as his feet? _

_Maybe I haven't changed that much…_

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It was then that Amber came out of the kitchen and announced that dinner was ready. Saved by the bell? Nope, I was definitely saved by Amber, I thought, as I made my way across the room to shake their hands in greeting and introduce them to the older friend of mine.

"Thanks for coming again guys," I greeted them, and then took the lead once more by extending my hand to the woman now at my side. "And this is Amber, the one who really saved me from myself really," she said proudly, recalling snippets of her first night in the city and how botched it would've been without her help or token of friendship.

"Lovely to meet you, Amber," Sally said happily but yet serious, shaking her hand and curtseying slightly. "And thank you for taking good care of Amy. We're eternally grateful."

Amber blushed a little at the remark, always having a slight insecure shell when it came to praise. She was too modest for her own good. She saved me, and she didn't even have to! She's a real diamond in the rough… I just wish she recognised that, I thought over as the hellos continued.

"Yeah, thank you Miss Amber. If she hadn't had met you then I dread to think what might have happened to her," Tails said, echoing everyone else's thoughts,

"It was no problem. Anyone else would've done the same," Amber said, and even her eyes betrayed the fact that she knew that wasn't the case, but I didn't point it out to her. "She needed a friend and support, and I know all too well how lonely and scared it can be in such a situation. I couldn't just leave her to face all that alone."

"Yes, Amy did mention something about zat," Antoine interjected. And I hoped he didn't put down the card I thought he was going to play. "You all lost your parents when you were wee small, no?" _Oh shoot. Good one, doofus…_

Amber was laying out the plates filled to the brim with the marinated beef, vegetables and pasta shells at the time, but she still took the time to look up, smile a little smile and reply.

"Yes, that is true. It was a horrible time… for me and Lisa, but we're doing well now. Life goes on as they say, and just we're doing the best we can like anyone else."

Her eyes always dimmed out abit, and sometimes it came out a little like a well-recited monologue. I guess she was fed up of repeating it? And I didn't mean anything bad by that… I just… don't think she's really given up the guilt she's taken for their deaths yet.

_Maybe one day she'll tell me the truth about that day._

"So wait a sec, you only mentioned Lisa and yourself in that. What about Zack over there?" Sonic said, looking confused, and pointing over the small still-growing boy that had wandered cautiously into the room.

"Shall we sit and dine?" Lisa interrupted cheerfully. "Then we eat and talk about whatever you want, okie?"

"That's sounds dandy to me," he replied, patting his stomach eagerly in anticipation and smiling that goofy smile.

* * *

And so we did, and Zack's past as an orphan Amber and Lisa took in with no memory of where he came from was revealed to them all, much to Zack's disliking. He ignored them even moreso then.

I sat across from Rotor, next to Antoine and Bunnie whereas, Sonic and Tails, ever together, were buddle together. Amber had the head of the table with Zack on side, keeping his distance from my friends, and Lisa was next to Bunnie and lovin' it. Bunnie had promised her a hair do-over before they left.

And on that point, it was a better time than ever but Sally beat me to the punch and answered my query from earlier.

"As for why we're here, Amy, I assume you know that it wasn't just to see you, right?" It didn't sound patronising at all; it was just stated as it was a fact [which it was]. Thus I nodded and she continued.

"NICOLE picked up Intel that Robotnik has been excavating something out here, in the Mystic Ruins to be precise. We had no idea what it was however until Sonic, and then all of us, came face to face with it and Robotnik himself outside Tail's place. It was a watery monster that can play on anyone's fear and whose strength will be absolute once it has all seven Chaos Emeralds. We were… and Sonic was… almost wiped out by it, if not for Tails." She lamented diligently, the defeat visibly written all over their faces even now. It must've been real tough for them alone.

Which made me wonder what The President would do should he ever encounter Robotnik and this Chaos thing. Station Square was under his and G.U.N.'s jurisdiction, so it was their responsibility to protect this city even moreso than the Freedom Fighters and me!

Crystal chirped cheerfully next to me on the table, eating a bowl of bird seed, and I beamed back at her as I petted her.

"So what is the story behind Crystal then, Amy? It looks like a Flicky but they're only situated on Flickies Island and that's miles from here and Knothole even!" Tails asked, glancing his curious eyes over her as he did.

"Well… It began this morning," I started, and then recounted the morning's events.

"So another heck of scrap metal has been chasing ya eh, Amy? My, my, you're still their favourite hostage then," Sonic smirked cheekily, putting his legs up on the table, which in turn lead to Sally giving him 'the glare' and him retracting them back.

I pouted and folded my arms and eye rolled it off. He wasn't gonna get to me that easily.

_But whoa, still the dominant one I see Sally. I wonder, is that the true way to Sonic's heart…?_

"So you're trying to track down Crystal's here's family, bless yah cotton candy heart Amy doll," Bunnie said sweetly. "Do you know where yah gonna look first?"

"Well she came down from the sky after that big airship flew across the skyline so I guess they might still be held captive aboard it. And what happened to Robotnik's airship anyway? It's too big to not be noticed if it's still nearby…" I voiced.

"That's a good question Amy," Rotor murmered. "Could he have a small base nearby already…?"

"Well, NICOLE did say that the Chaos excavation had been done after the last five days, so it's slim, but possible all the same," Sally thought out loud. "She find out the airship's make name though."

"And that is?" I asked.

"The Egg Carrier, it's called the Egg Carrier, Amy." She then turned to Amber and thanked her for the meal, having finished every single mouthful, and the others soon followed suit.

"Going already?" Amber asked with sleek amusement in her tone. "My cooking wasn't _that_ bad was it? I'm still working on perfecting Granma's recipe!"

"Yeah, where are you off to now at this hour?" I interjected, baffled as to the prompt take of leave.

"No, no, it was very nice. Thanks again. But we have an undercover mission to undergo. Tails' tracker picked up a Chaos Emerald on the way here. It's in the western sector," Sally reiterated. "We'll be back later on if you'll have us…?" She ended – her voice unnaturally wavy.

"It'll be no problem Princess Sally. Most of you will have to make do with the sofa and floor I'm afraid. There's not much room for guest rooms in this place," amber replied sheepishly.

I'd already grabbed my cerulean jacket without thinking about it and hurried to catch up with them.

"Amy… Sorry hon, but this is a five-piece mission. Anymore and it gets real risky to keep the protease up, ya know?" Bunnie said, grabbing my hand and letting me down as gently as she could. Her eyes were saddened I could tell, but it still stung. So I dropped my head and hung the jacket back up.

_Ah. No room for me on this one._ I sighed inwardly. It made sense I suppose. I was finding it hard to hide my disappointment though, and they all noticed it, especially Sonic, who mouthed 'I'll see ya later' to me without words. I waved them off with a smile anyway and moments after they were gone. _Again…_

_The life of a super hero never does run smooth does it_?

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**THE WORTHINGTON FLAT / Downtown / Southern Sector / Station Square / **

**23: 41 PM**

Sonic and the others had gotten back late, victorious in their efforts, though not without some scrapes. The dirty scoundrel who'd had the grey emerald, Max Gamble, had even tried to kill them all, just for losing a poker game – what a [sad] lowlife! Then they'd all gone to bed, Amber, Lisa and Zack included. Except me, as I couldn't sleep, so I continued to scour the horizons ahead.

The dark blanket across the sky held many stars tonight, I thought as the cool breeze fluttered across my cheeks. It was so surreal, having them here, in my life again, after so long.

_I'm so happy right now. I hope… maybe… I can go back with them when all is said and done. I'm sure... Amber and the others would be happy for me. They wouldn't think I was a fool, would they?_

That on word brought it all back, the face of the card bearing The Fool as its title. The ominous feeling it gave me as it was collectively associated with life and sacrifice, be it for the greater good or greater gain.

I was breathing more deeply now, almost erratic. I'd figured that the chosen trio of cards had meant for me to head for the beach for a 'pleasant surprise' (and it was, greatly so), but what if I was _wrong_? What if it meant something else, a divine intervention that hadn't occurred yet…?

As silly as it was, even for someone like me with a few years experience with tarot cards and using them, it scared me because… _I just… don't want this all to end. _

And it was then that I heard something from behind me, the patio door sliding open, and my breath caught in my throat when I turned around.

It was _him_. And the moonlight played across his sleek form, tantalising even the most gorgeous blues in the world and teasing me in the process. He slowly stepped up onto the end of the flower covered balcony and run his left hand through his spines whilst his other lay on the guard rail. He looked so calm, so _relaxed_, was this his other side, the non-wild one?

His breathing was at ease with the wind and almost inaudible but I could hear it, I could sense it. And for all his calmness, he was reducing to a bag of nerves as he continued to gaze outwards on this balcony with me, _alone_.

_Darn you Sonic… _

"So what's keeping you up then Ames?" Sonic said simply, turning to face me, a friendly smile on his face.

I was a bit slow on the uptake, but not as bad as before, so I looked up into his emerald hues, and allowed them to entrapment me once again. _You're so weak girl… But I can't help it. Not with him… _

"Well, I was just thinking… Do you think that, maybe, I could come back with you guys, after we defeat Robotnik and that Chaos guy here?" I asked hopefully.

He didn't say anything for a moment or two, but it looked as though he was thinking [or at least pretending to look like he was so], and then suddenly he smiled, not only with his mouth but with his eyes as well! Was he wondering about that too?

And as if he could read my mind… "I was gonna ask that later too, ya know," sighing for dramatic effect. "Of course you can Amy! We've only wanted another chance together for a year now, you silly girl," and he continued to smile and then moved and it all happened so fast because then… I feel a weight around me, surrounding me, a breathing shield, and then I realise that Sonic the Hedgehog, of all people, is hugging _me_.

_Oh, now this feels like a divine intervention!_ I chime inside – one side of me a giddy schoolgirl and the other reciting 'The Fool' over and over.

This was just so sudden, my heart was swelling up so high I thought it'd flutter off out of my chest and leave me, which only made it harder to remember to breathe, but I managed it. Basic living need after all. And thereafter I allowed my eyes to wander downward, settling onto a nearby rose of mine in bloom, as I tested the boundary I'd always wanted to cross… To touch his head spines, what else were you expecting?

Shockingly he let me touch them, but that's all I did, just touch them. Stroking them would've been too... weird and awkward, to put it short. But it was nice enough anyway. They felt so smooth and yet, had a _feathery_ kind of inner texture to them?

_I guess it enables him to use the wind to his gain and run as fast as he does? Birds have that advantage with the way their wings are constructed, so it'd only make sense for Sonic's spines to be the same, wouldn't it?_

_Though I wasn't expecting a feathery spine texture from a hedgehog… Even my own aren't this aerodynamic built. But then, I guess mine are more adaptable to style changes. _I smirked at that one, before his warmth infected me.

_I feel so safe… in your arms… Sonic… _

"Thank... you…" I murmur warmly [and pathetically] in his ear.

"No problem Ames," he said coolly. And then seconds later, we awkwardly separated and stood back to back.

"So… I guess we should get some sleep. It'll probably be an adventure-ful day tomorrow," he said tiredly, but with obvious excitement laced in his voice.

"Yeah…" _I can't wait…_ "We should." He and I got up and walked over to the still open patio door and went our separate ways, before not before I said "Goodnight Sonic".

"Goodbye to you too Amy…" he said, before collapsing on the last available bit of sofa space and falling asleep.

I managed to make it back to my own bed without much incident, and as I curled underneath my bed covers, it dawned on me. Just how much I'd missed them all. Not knowing at that exact same moment that a certain cool blue hedgehog was thinking the same.

_Hopefully I'll never have to feel that way again…_

_I wonder what the new day will bring, to adventure and for us all…_

And as I continued to reflect back on the day that had come to pass, I decided to make a promise [to myself] to be a more positive individual! That life wasn't to rush through and that I should let what will be come to pass before worrying about it.

_Because whatever happened, happened, and whatever will be, will be. I hope, someday… _

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**Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream**

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And after like six months I finally update this [huzzah]! So sorry, but time and my life have really just run away from me recently. So much has happened and there's still so much left to do, but alias, and so here ends the tenth chapter of this story arc [now split into two]!

-ZERO reference picture-

.com/fs21/f/2007/293/e/5/E_Series__E_100_Alpha_ZERO_by_E_122_

I think I went a bit overboard with ZERO's description in this chapter… I just don't know how to describe complex looking things briefly?

So yeah… if anyone could comment on that at least, that'd be nice.

The throwaway to Captain Plunder & his Sky Pirates is to their first appearance [if I remember correctly] in the British Sonic comic, Sonic The Comic, in issue #23, which was part of the 5 part loose Sonic CD adaptation called 'The Sonic Terminator'.

In it Amy was the one to successfully deal a deal with the pirates and averted an all-out-brawl between them and the Freedom Fighters, despite the fact she was the damsel who'd been captured by the pirates in the first place!

[Although, whilst it happened the same way in the SU verse, minus the obvious Archie-related stuff, I plan to make it take place in a different arc than the Metal Sonic one].

Also, Amy's dinner outfit in this story? It's her original garb from Sonic CD fame! And as for the 'feathery-like' spines for Sonic…? A completely random interpretation of mine of what a real life Sonic the Hedgehog's spines would feel like. I don't think I've read a fanfic yet that really details such a thing actually.

Oh, and damn, I've made a few continuity errors between this and 'Out On The Town' too! In that, it's written as though the FFs haven't met Amy yet in the beginning [but they have, as seen in this chapter] and Sonic was 'dreading' to see her, when that tension was already eased [a bit] by the time that scene takes place. Sorry guys. I might edit that later or at least in time for the final chapter of this story. I'll note it when I do at the end of a chapter.

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The official timeline for the story so far is:

[FIRST DAY]

-Midnight Hours-

**Watery Abyss** **------****** **Enveloped in Solitude**

-Morning-

**Lazy Day In Paradise [**the fishing part**]**

**All You Need Is A Bit Of Chaos / Duty Calls**

-Afternoon Onwards**– **

**Lazy Day In Paradise / Normal As It Gets **

**[**SECOND DAY**]**

-Morning-

**Chaos Shows His Face / O Heavenly Bodies Why Am I In This World**

[THIRD DAY]

**Out On The Town / Reuniting With Friends**

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But overall, I hope you enjoyed this, and the chapters so far, any comments or ratings would be nice and appreciated! ^-^

'**Chaos X4' is the next chapter, starring Knuckles, Amy, and the Freedom Fighters etc.**

Take care ya'll ***smiley face***


	13. Chaos X4

**Disclaimer**: _I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

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**CHAPTER 11: Chaos X4**

**STATION SQUARE / CENTRAL SECTOR / 09:00 AM**

After the ruckus those stupid girls and townspeople had made I'd opted to get some rest and continue my quest in the morning. And so I'd gathered some leaves from some of the bigger plants some humans had out on display on their balconies and made a small leaf bed atop an abandoned rooftop high up from everyone and everything. I doubt they'd miss a few leaves or two, I figured. _Hoarding some amazing plants in this place like that... Simply despicable!_

The starlight lights and evening bustle halted my progress at first but slowly but surely, I managed to fall into a restful slumber. And as the darkness devoured me, I thought I could see a sparkling orb of white pinky light, but I quickly brushed it off as overexposure to all the neon city lights. It's not like it could be anything else… And with that, I was out like a light.

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_*Play Sonic Adventure – Knuckle's Theme*_

***Ding – Dong – Ding – Dong!***

_What the… hell is that?_ I wondered, my thoughts swirling around, trying to become coherent. It wasn't like something else to wake me up, as my mediations with the Master Emerald and my own abilities had regulated my body into a routine, and now that said routine was being interrupted–

***Ding – Dong – Ding – Dong!***

-by that! I cursed, feeling my vision coming back to me. It was hazy, and yet bright. "Can't you see that a _Guardian_ is trying to sleep here? I wake up on _my_ terms, not yours…" I groaned angrily out loud, really having no clue who or what I was talking to. I guessed that was my mistake [not that I made many], I fessed to myself…

A scorching ray of sunlight struck me as I wriggled out of my leaf bed and stumbled onto my feet. _Man, getting to sleep was a lot harder here than back on the Floating Island. The planet's too noisy here…_ _Now what was that ringing sound? It sounded familiar somewhat…_

"Aha! There you are!" I cried triumphantly, it was then that my vision became its crystal clear best and I took in what I'd been talking to.

Two clues, it was tall and rectangular and had a large gold face. Get it? It was the Station Square Clock Tower, which was situated a few buildings ahead!

_Not a good start to the day…_ I cursed as I smacked myself in the forehead, again, curiously, seeing pinky white sparkles in my mind's eye...

"What's going on here?" I said to no one in particular, my purple eyes drew tight as I started feeling more agitated than ever. _And a Guardian should never lose his cool without reason… or so the scriptures had said._ "This place has me going crazy – I've got to find the Master Emerald and get the Floating Island airborne again!"

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And with motivation elevated to greater levels than ever, I took out the sole Master Emerald piece I'd acquired last night, from the outer window sill of a little boy's home flat no less, and mediated, aligning my spirit energy with that of the emerald itself.

The familiar humming and chorus of barely audible mantra swiftly ringing inside my head, through every nerve and cell, like a continual tide of ancient wisdom from an unknown past [my own, I figured]. And even for one as talented with the emeralds as me, it wouldn't take even Sonic that long to figure this one out, _not that he'd ever have the patience or the knack to be enlightened, the cocky pest_, I smirked. For it simply meant this, the emerald piece was close, _very_ close.

Using the darkness of my closed mind as an overlay, I began looking at the world through chaos energy, an art that only my kind ever perfected [to my knowledge]. The world became black, with only nearby people, buildings, lights, animals, plants and the like all becoming luminous [even my radar had its limit, I'll grudgingly admit, but it was fine for what I needed to use it for].

Traces of light from across the colour spectrum entered my irises, with buildings giving off the less due to being non-living [duh], with none to very small signatures coming off of any normal human nearby [they were in-adept in using it at all, after all]. There were about two that were slightly larger than anyone else, again human, which was intriguing, but not really important [or my problem to be frank].

Plants and animals, the purer living things had noticeably more chaos energy coursing through them, not enough to be drew out and used, but enough to show an obvious hierarchy to the order of things. And whilst Mobians generally had double the potential chaos energy than humans did, Sonic and Tails looked to be the special cases in that their own levels were huge, just a bit less than mine, which was intriguing I must admit. I was no expert on it all though, for I hadn't come across any notes on chaos energy in creatures in my searches for answers to date…

_Answers… to what became of the echidna race… that vision? What could it mean?_

_Could it be…_ I wondered, looking at emerald piece in my right gloved hand. …_That the Master Emerald is finally revealing what it knows of my past, of the past of my race? Could this all be a test? And if so, what'd happen if I failed…?_

I shook my head, _no_, that isn't acceptable, at _all _costs. Whatever it took, I'd restore the Master Emerald and the Floating Island and then, then I'll finally get some answers!

A piercing and unique emerald green glowed dead ahead from out of the dark-cloaked world in my mind, about two buildings ahead of me, to the west side of the clock tower but just ahead of it. _This should be a piece of cake as long as I don't run into any more children again!_

And so with adrenaline in my step, I took the plunge and dived off of the tall sky-reaching I was on and glided on the warm wind, towards yet another grey block amongst many. Not noticing again, that an orb of white pinky light was trailing me…

* * *

When I got to the building, my former opinion of it was changed somewhat, firstly it was taller than I imagined, for the wind hadn't been enough to glide me to the top so I'd had to knuckle-climb my way up the brick wall. Surprisingly though, it wasn't all that grey and dreary as the others were either. It was more of a luxurious blend of light and dark creamy colours, from its triangular tiled rooftop to the balcony and window sills, even the floor was a light, creamy marble. Whoever lived here obviously was quite wealthy, and if they have the emerald piece… then it could be harder to get it back than I first thought. Who knows how much they think they can sell it for or how desperate they'd be to keep it in whatever damn gem collection they have. _Desperate people are some of the worst kind of person to be against, for they could do anything to get one over on you. I learned that much from dealing with Robotnik and those lowlifes I met across my Mobius trip…_

I swiftly decided to heck with it, I was more than capable of looking after myself, and so I quietly slid the glass patio door aside and stepped into the room beyond. It was still early morning anyway so maybe the owner had gone out or was still asleep, I thought as I wandered aimlessly through the silky white curtains that'd been drawn over the entrance.

"Oh, good morning Knuckles! I trust you had a pleasant trip?" a horribly familiar voice sneered with glee. It was the eggman himself, calmly drinking a cup of tea at a white lavish table with a single leg crossed over the other. _Of all the people in the world to be here at this time, of course it'd be you, wouldn't it?_ I snorted in response. _If you think having a big tub of metal on one arm will help you fend off me then you have another thing coming, Robotnik... _

I closed the distance between us before he could blink again, I was no Sonic, but I was fast in my own right. "Where is it Robotnik?" I threatened, parading my fist in his face, which remained annoyingly amused. Was the swine _that_ confident? Something wasn't right here…

A single drip of water echoed behind me and only reacting in time to throw my fists across my fist, the sound erupted into a flow of cascading water and became a physical force, pummelling me into a nearby wall.

_Damn_, I cursed. I forgot to watch my back. _And now I'm all wet. I'm probably gonna reek later…_

I turned around and came face to face with that water monster again. But more than the continued mysterious nature of the creature, and its ability to cause heighted anxiety in a foe worried me; the fact that it appeared to be allied with Robotnik topped that, by a hell of a lot.

* * *

"So it was _you_ wasn't it?" I roared at Robotnik my accusation. "You had this water beast come onto my Island and destroy the Master Emerald didn't you, you fiend!" And even as I lay down the law he was still fucking smiling. _Aurora give me strength… Hmm? Where'd that come from?_

"To answer your questions knucklehead, no, Chaos, here did not smash your emerald. My newest Metal Sonic did that, and right under your nose too. Haha!"

I frowned, for if that was the case then the Floating Island's protective shield was still not at full power and thus was prone to any invasion, if Metal Sonic had been able to bypass the alarm system… And as if he could read me (_fat chance)_, Robotnik began speaking again.

"Too bad, eh? It looks like your island isn't as well protected as you say it is. What a sorry excuse for a guardian you are," he sneered, making my red-hot blood boil again.

"Shut up you robot-loving psycho, now tell me all about this 'Chaos' here and give me my damn Master Emerald piece. I _know_ you have it."

"I'll tell you nothing fool, since you haven't worked out the obvious first thing about him it seems." What did he mean by that, what link wasn't I seeing? "As for your silly little keepsake emerald, I don't know what you used to track it to this penthouse, which cost a pretty dime to rent I'll have you know, but it isn't here."

He paused and rubbed his chin curiously, calculating his next move no less, so I made sure to keep an eye on Chaos, who was still standing next to the eggman and leering at me with its beady emerald eyes, and for any robots of his hiding behind the pillars in the room, ready for a sneak-attack. He then put his hand into his right sleeve pocket.

"Ahh, but this isn't what you're after, is it?" he said, bringing out none only than the red Chaos Emerald. _The red one? If it was the green one then maybe I could've got it wrong, but the red one? What about that green glow I saw from this building…?_

I looked over at Chaos, the beast unnerving even me and wondered. _Could Chaos be more than a simple namesake, and elude some kind of connection between the Chaos Emeralds and itself? And maybe… even the Master Emerald itself?_ I thought it over for a second and decided that that was a definite yes.

_Things are getting more mysterious by the minute… I better hurry this up and get the hell back on my quest. My destiny awaits me!_

"That's okay though. I can use you as a guinea pig to test it… Time for some breakfast, Chaos – now open wide!" Robotnik ordered, chucking the emerald straight into Chaos' abyss of a mouth.

_So this thing does stronger from eating(?!) Chaos Emeralds. Oh well, now I'll get him good!_

The suddenness of it all had startled me, and I knew I was too late for whatever happened next so I stood back and tried to wait patiently.

Then the white light filled the room, blinding me.

* * *

_*Play Sonic Adventure – Chaos 0, 2 & 4 BATTLE Theme*_

When it receded, Chaos now looked abit different, as it was taller and more muscular. And now it curiously had bones running through its arms and what looked like purple and dark blue emeralds imbedded in its hands. _They must be all the Chaos Emerald's it's absorbed, I deduced._ The beast's head was also more bent over, making it even more unpleasant to look at than before, and its head horns reminded me more of a shark that Tails had harped on about once, a hammerhead or something?

Robotnik was now at the far end of the room by the door, letting his beast get his hands dirty for him, as per the usual. I'd deal with him soon enough though, and so I turned to face the looming beast, which just managed to fit in this lavish, cream-marble circular room.

"Now, let's see what you can do _Chaos 2_, defeat this gullible moron!" Robotnik said.

Before one could even say 'go', it was on. Its left arm immediately shot at me, attempting no doubt, to pierce through me and pin me to the wall. Luckily, I wasn't as dense as that and hopped over that pitiful opening move. "Hah! Changing shape won't scare me!" I shouted, as I jumped over another of its flailing arms.

And wasting no more time I jumped, deflected off a nearby pillar, and used my momentum to then glide myself around and delivered a downward drill attack straight through Chaos glowing pink brain and body. His body broke down into a sloppy puddle, but knowing full well how resilient he was, I kept my fighting pose intact as I began to run around the circumference of the room.

Sure enough he reformed, but not for long.

He then turned into a torrent of flowing water and spiralled around in mid-air, forming an aqua sphere in the room's centre. _Oh boy, now what?_ He then started to _bounce_ (bouncing of all things!) around the room, trying to squash or drown me, either way it was a bizarre tactic.

Nevertheless, due to my running, the wind was now cushioned under my dreadlocks so now was the time to put this oversized beach ball wannabe outta commission! _Oh no, I'm starting to sound like Sonic… Ugh…_

I sprung off the floor and braced myself for impact [and more soggy fur]. It wasn't to be however, as I was deflected off by a blue energy shield. To try and regain control I twisted in the air and decided to go right for the brain, but then Chaos broke down into that torrent of water streams again and spiralled past me, battering my body as he… it… went.

_Damn, why does water have to be so malleable? It is a creature of liquid chaos energy, (from what I can figure) I suppose, though… Still, what prowess! He wasn't as dumb as a typical monster after all._

_

* * *

  
_

I, somehow (despite the large amount of moisture clouding my vision), managed to grab a pillar with one fist and slide down it, causing a large groove in its centre.

"Bah! At least I won't be residing here for much longer. Let those pitiful hotel persons clean up the mess we leave behind!" I heard Robotnik mutter to himself, still by the door, watching our every move.

Chaos had now reformed into its default form and was strutting towards me with its lanky arms. I looked around for something to distract it, seeing as its blue shield most likely protected it from frontal attacks. There wasn't actually much in the lavish room, so I improvised. I grabbed the nearby chair, the one that Robotnik had been on when I first entered, and kicked it across the floor. It, surprisingly didn't break upon contact, and ploughed through Chaos' legs, breaking its form into an overlarge puddle once more. The chair then hit the pillar on the side, and _then_ broke. _Oh, well…_

I had already done a lap of the room by the time it'd reformed again, and it stood there this time, just eying me up. Then it gave a primal roar and formed what could only be detailed as water cannonballs in its palms and rocketed them my way by thrusting its arms forward.

"That's it; give me your best shot creepy!" I taunted, for my own mild amusement more than anything else. It may have been smarter than the average monster, but I doubted that it could understand speech as much as it couldn't talk.

One water-ball flew past me to my right; the other hit me dead in the chest.

"Ugh!" I coughed, as I got my breath back that the projectile had knocked out of me.

_Okay, I guess that makes us even…_ I thought, as I stared Chaos down. _Now it's time for the final round!_

When it'd reformed into the aqua sphere again, I'd just assumed it was going to start bouncing again, but my assumption this time was wrong. Instead, he split into many tinier water spheres! I estimated there was about twenty of them.

_Now, what? A bouncing party?_

Wrong. They all sprung at my grounded self, and whilst I managed to smash my fist through most of them I ended up with four latched onto my body, squeezing hard. Two were on either leg, the other on my right arm and the final one was trying its brutal best to snap my neck n half!

_Getting… hard to... BREATHE! Damn sneaky [unknown echidna curse word]…_

The room was spinning now and getting blurrier by the second, I had to do something fast! So realising that my left arm was left intact, I made a reckless bid for freedom. So I slashed at the one around my neck swiftly, knowing that physically pulling it off or even ingesting the stuff weren't viable options, and gladly avoided my own neck in the process. The measure had worked, for I hadn't given it time to reform itself and it splattered onto the ground, slithering over to its main host body on the room's other side.

The other three were set and matched in record time thereafter, leaving me to face off with Chaos 2, whose shuddering body clued me in that one last hit should do the trick.

_Then Robotnik would be answering to me._

It ended about thirty seconds after that, and to be honest, it wasn't nearly a challenge as the battle had been prior. It was kind of _disappointing _before it'd been so great before_…_ But for those that want to know the details, we'd both charged at each other, fully going with our primal instincts, from fists to roars. He slashed at me with twin arms; I back flipped over them and gave a tasty knuckle sandwich right in the head! Which in turn, reduced him into a whimpering puddle and allowed me a brief moment of smugness, I'll boldly admit.

* * *

_*Play Sonic Adventure – Eggman's Theme*_

Now, back in the present, I was mere feet in front of Robotnik, standing my ground and was about to head in for the 'kill' as they say when…

"Bah! So what if you won this time echidna. You haven't seen the true powers of Chaos!" Robotnik gloated, that crimson madness the likes I think I'll ever see in another gleaming brightly in his eyes, as he swung his arms about like he was orchestrating a choir, or something.

"Yeah, yeah, that still doesn't faze me, you hear?" I shrugged it off, raising my fists up in a threatening manner.

"I know something that might. It's about Sonic and his lil band…" he said simply.

"What? What about them?" I replied curiously, lowering down my fists just a bit.

"They're after the pieces of the Master Emerald too, in the Mystic Ruins!" he said, as though it was revelation from the stars.

"Yeah right Robotnik, I'm not falling for that again!" _What did he take me for?!_

"Ha! Just know that you're not the only one on a wild goose chase, idiot! Why should I reveal your surprise? Ha, ha, ha… " he spat, before then stepping back and revealing the door to be none other than the elevator. He was gone before I could grab him. _Must've called it during my fight with Chaos_, I figured, of whom had all but disappeared from the room form what I could tell. That indescribable smell of fear and chaos was gone at least.

_Still, it'd make sense if Sonic and the others were here._ I thought as I vacated the property the same way I came in, via gliding on the wind. _Wherever Robotnik went they followed. Maybe… just maybe, they might hold some answers to what has been happening, the white pinky light… and Chaos. The latter especially, he seriously bugged me for some reason I couldn't fathom…_

And so with that I hightailed it back to town, rushing past a ginger haired human female outside some eating establishment and back to that train station again.

This time however I did things _my way_ and simply hung on and rode it from the top.

Much better, I thought, _so_ much better.

* * *

**MYSTIC RUINS ZONE / 10:21 AM**

As I'd hung onto the metallic behemoth, I'd wondered just why I hadn't glided to the ruins instead. _Maybe this 'modern age' is rubbing off on me. Ugh… I think I'll just blame Sonic, yeah that's right…_ Insulting the blue show-off always did bring a nice smirk to my face.

"So back here again, eh?" I spoke out aloud, observing the green and rocky plains. _Now just where are the Freedom Fighters when you actually need them?_

"Hey! It's Knuckles!" cried a familiar voice from somewhere behind me. Not too long then. Finally, something good! I turned round and was met not only with the run-away Amy Rose (_had she come back to them now?_), but with all of them.

"Long time no see knucklehead," the blue clown cheekily uttered my way. I wanted to simply snort him off but Sonic usually ground my gears up, and today was no different. "Whatever you blue pin-cushion…" I grumbled [and received a smirk in return]. _What a moron…_

"Knuckles, it's good to see yah again!" Bunnie hollered, hands on hip, but I didn't pay her much attention for I'd noticed something in Sonic's hands. It was the grey Chaos Emerald!

"So you guys _are_ after the Chaos Emeralds. What's going on guys?" I asked of them, with just a little suspicion aroused in my voice.

"What about you Knuckles, what are you doing here?" Tails asked. _You always were one of the smarter ones of this crew, excluding Sally and Rotor anyway. Maybe Bunnie too, I don't know._

I sighed before explaining myself, much as I hated doing that. "It began two nights ago…"

And so I told my tale. "… And that was what happened. That _water beast_, Chaos 2,made me crash my island into the jungle lake over there and now, now… pieces of my Master Emerald are everywhere!" I shouted, the red-hot anger taking over me, making me more emotional than I wanted to be in front of them [or anyone for that matter]. By the end I was on my knees with my hands over my face [_I wasn't crying!_], shaking with rage.

"I'm so sorry that you had to do that Knuckles…" Amy began, looking at me so I could see the moisture pricking her eyes. _Good grief girl, not the waterworks please! I'll… live._

"Yeah man, that just sucks," Sonic chimed in. "But don't worry."

"Hmm? What do you mean 'don't worry'? Do you know something I do not, hedgehog?"I said, glaring warning daggers at him.

"Well, we're looking for the Chaos Emeralds so we can stop Robotnik and Chaos growing any stronger, so wouldn't the Master Emeralds be like attracted to places with such chaos energy?" He said, shrugging it off as though it was the simplest thing in the world, which I guess made sense. _Maybe these others are rubbing off on his brain_, I pondered.

"Then again… You really shouldn't have lost it in the first place, because then you wouldn't be in this mess o mighty guardian," he joked merrily, hands stretched behind his head.

That did it.

"You know I've had just about enough of you, you blue-show-off! You have _no right_ to say that about me – you know nothing about responsibility or hardship!" I roared, and then we charged at one another, as the electrical tension between us exploded. "Bring it knucklehead!"

He dodged my first punch and I ducked under his, and then we stood off, eying the other down, willingly them to give up first. That didn't last too long, unsurprisingly, and then it was back to our brawling dance. I punched along the ground and rolled to the side.

The others were shouting obscenities in the background like 'you're acting like a bunch of children' and 'oh please stop it, I don't want you two to get hurt' and [blah, blah], _couldn't they see that this doofus needed to be put down a peg or two?! It'd only help them in the long run… They should be thanking me._

The end came quickly, with me smacking him right across his cocky face whilst he landed a kick right in my stomach, after that we were both down on the ground, breathing heavily as the others came over judge and ridicule us [I presumed].

"Had enough playtime kids?" Sally sternly, looking at us disapprovingly.

I grunted at first and averted my gaze; I didn't wanna be caught in the Princesses glare. She sure was prickly at times, but at least the hedgehog gets it rough, I smirked. _She'll get him in line, if I don't first the cocky brat…_ And then I thought better of it.

"Yes, I'm sorry for… overreacting like that Princess," I said as nicely as I could, she was the more respectable of the bunch after all.

Sonic mumbled something nearby, and Sally had glared him down even before me. _Yep, I really like her_, I thought.

"Wait, did he zay Chaos 2?" Antoine said timidly.

The weird accented man surprised me, for he never did speak much, and when he did he was usually moaning of something trivial such as walking a few miles or fighting or whatever. Still he was one of them, for all his flaws.

"That's what I said man," I answered him flatly, arms folded across my buff chest.

"So Robotnik and Chaos are one step ahead of us again," Rotor said thoughtfully. "Time is running out. If we struggled with his first form then what could we do against his 'perfect' form?"

That thought sent a shudder through us all, well, minus Amy Rose I noted. _She hasn't been back with them for that long then… _

"Still," Tails began. "At least it explains that 'earthquake' we felt when we first got here."

Murmurs of agreement came from all around, leaving me again to my heavy thoughts about the Floating Island and the quest still ahead of me…

* * *

Nothing more was said, other than some fleeting glances of pity my way. I knew they all meant well but it just didn't help…

It did pain me to see how pleased they'd looked to have seen me, though. I never had even turned that communicator device of Tails' on… I'd just been so busy, I reasoned within myself. _Some 'friend' I was…_

Then, out of nowhere, the ground ahead of us was blown away. And by the time we located the ones responsible it was too late, we were surrounded.

It was a Badnik [and Swatbot] hoard, consisting of Eggrobos and Buzz Bombers, and some I'd never seen before; they looked like Rhinos, though. And leading them in his ever present Egg-o-Matic was, of course, Robotnik himself.

"What are yah up to now yah lard bucket?" Bunnie said hostilely.

"Why, my half flea-ridden rabbit, I thought you'd want an audience with the new and improve Chaos. Ha, ha, ha!"

And with that he brought out two more Chaos Emeralds, red and light blue, from his jacket pocket, _just how deep were they? Did he have them with him back at the penthouse or have his agents just located them?_ These thoughts occurred within me, at least until a very familiar puddle spawned on the ground next to Robotnik. _Here we go again…_

"Stop him guys!" Sally ordered, and despite not being my leader I followed the other Freedom Fighters into the battle anyway. They'd need my unique brute strength!

Seconds later my fist had ripped through a Buzz Bomber. Oh, the joy of it, the thrill of battle! I loved it, even if I was becoming increasingly involved with their affairs with Robotnik more than I liked... _Still, they've helped me out a lot, so I guess it's only my duty to return the favour. I am a warrior with honour after all!_

As I spun around, looking for my next victim, I quickly noted what everyone else was tied up with [it's best to know where all your comrades are at and their status throughout a battle, obviously]. Tails was flying around, avoiding the laser fire from some Swatbots and trying to get to the eggman. Bunnie was smashing some Eggrobos heads together with no effort at all, whereas the French man Antoine was flailing around in the hopes that he'd hit something, and was assisted by Rotor. Now, Sonic and Sally were tag-teaming the front guard to Robotnik with Sally back-flipping and judo kicking at the metal heads, while also throwing Sonic [in mid-air] straight through the whole platoon! For a cocky annoyance he sure had [some] style, at least, and his team skills, especially with the Princess looked to be improving.

Though, something was nagging me about the whole thing. _Wait… wasn't I missing someone here? Hmm…_

A scorching laser blast to my back soon stopped me thinking, and turning around, why wasn't I surprised to learn that it was yet another of those blasted Robotnik lookalikes!

"Why you little…" I snarled, launching myself at the quaint and hideous thing. Seconds later it was split into three messy pieces [head, torso and legs] and I was calmer once more.

* * *

"I've… got… them!" I heard someone call out.

What had happened was this, Tails had finally shaken off his hunting party and had smacked right into the Egg-o-Matic craft. The desired result was that Robotnik would drop the emeralds right into someone's steady hands. That didn't happen for they went flying through the air, so Tails didn't 'have them' as he'd just said, he just thought the was going to...

_Tails…_ Groaning inside a little, I then stepped up to the plate and broke into a heavy stride.

Something then whizzed past me, _man Robotnik's craft is faster than I thought it was_, I thought upon seeing it ahead of me. The red emerald was nearly in his grubby mitts – I had to stop him!

"Ha, ha, ha! You rotten little twin-tailed freak, now who's laughing," Robotnik bellowed as he swiped the red emerald from the air, stopping me in my tracks.

"Oh no, the Chaos Emerald!" Sonic cried.

"First come, first served they say," Robotnik sneered. "Here Chaos…"

And with that the slimy creature rose out of the large puddle that'd been offside whilst we'd been battling, and it looked _hungry_.

_Most probably because of the whooping I gave it earlier, heh._

"Come here my hungry pet," the mad tyrant said as he threw the red emerald from his palm and right into Chaos' gapping mouth [which he never used bar when he was being feed these, just in case you were wondering].

A golden glow began to radiate, and the others began to panic. It was too late to stop it now but maybe we still had a fighting chance, I thought. And then it hit me. In the confusion I'd almost forgot, but this still left the light blue emerald unaccounted for, I wonder where it could've got to… _Can these things even break?_

"I've got it mi princess, I've g-got it!"

_Oh no… _

And there he was, with the aforementioned emerald hopping up and down in his frantic hands.

"Antoine! Just calm down or you'll drop it-" Sally began hurriedly as she raced on over to him, followed by Bunnie and Rotor.

However it was all for naught, as the klutz tripped over his foot as he'd finally got it settled in his palm and was running over to greet them. Then the emerald was sent soaring once more, hitting the ground once. It didn't break. Well, that solves that little thought. But then it skipped straight into the fading transforming light of Chaos.

"Antoine…" we all groaned. Though, this stupid action was with haste glossed over, as the light distorted our vision as it increased two-fold.

_Oh, Master Emerald, please me this cannot get much worse [or Chaos get uglier]. _

_

* * *

  
_

As the light died down once again, we then all bared witness to Chaos 4. And what a 'beauty' he was.

The water beast had changed considerably, now in an upright, more compact position and resembling a huge shark-like creature with razor like fins. Its clawed hands looked like they could vice-grip a poor soul very easily and send them on their way to oblivion with haste. The end of its body was interesting too, in that it looked like it was missing a tail. _How strange…_

"Now look what he is!" Tails exclaimed, partly with curiosity but mostly with fear. And I couldn't blame the little guy, he kinda scared me too, for some reasons I didn't even know.

"That's one big pile

"No problem. I'll make him eat dirt!" I bellowed strongly, pounding my two fists together before assuming a fighting stance as he glided swiftly at us.

Then the energy wave hit us.

* * *

**MYSTIC RUINS ZONE / 10:44 AM**

_*Play Sonic Adventure – Chaos 0, 2 & 4 BATTLE Theme*_

It was dark and murky all around me and I had no idea how long had passed, but I knew that I needed air desperately!

So with a powerful kick I propelled myself through the strangling water, trying to realign myself correctly so I could see where the surface was. It didn't take long for me to see it, the glowing yellow-whitish sphere, and with one final push then there was light.

Up above, there was pandemonium. Everyone was clambering onto the giant lily pads that were dotted on the lake's surface and trying to stand upright (the lake was deeper than one would first assume, you see). And then there was Sonic, the renowned hero of Mobius, splashing frantically for his life in the waters of the lake. I knew he had some unresolved problem with water, aqua phobia or something according to Tails, but it didn't make the sight any less pathetic to see. And I made my thoughts immediately clear.

"Hey! Care to join us in taking care of this oversized water beast here," I said, pointing to Chaos 4, who was hovering over the water's surface in anticipation. "Toughen up and get out of the water you spiny show-off!" I didn't mince my angry words. He got it pretty quickly though as he scrambled to the nearest lily pad, which had Antoine on it no less, and quickly assumed a fighting stance.

_Finally._ "Now, let's get this show on the road!"

*RARRRRRR* It screamed at us, before diving into the water and coming straight at us.

"Evasive manoeuvres guys!" I heard Sally ring out. We all jumped, not that it helped much for the water flowed over and hit us. Thankfully, the lily pads remained intact.

"Sally, we need to come up with some form of attack – we're sitting ducks here!" Rotor shouted out with raising panic in his voice.

"Okie, okie…" she retorted thoughtfully, before then turning to Bunnie.

"Bunnie", the Princess began slowly, with strength. "I need you to keep Chaos busy, we can't let him get back in the water, he's stronger there."

"You got it Sally girl, this is one big fish that won't be going back into the water!" Bunnie said, before firing up and rocketing into the air.

_Those new metallic implants are still going strong then, that's good for us._

I noticed that she shuddered somewhat as she got closer to the floating beast, which was odd since she always appeared so fearless. Still, using her rocket boots the southern woman delivered what looked like a satisfying punch to Chaos' face.

It got me etching to get back in the ring, so that's what I did.

* * *

"Hey Knuckles, be careful man, this dude is _baddd_ news," Sonic chimed in, now on the lily pad to my left.

I smirked at that one. "I know Sonic, me and him had a scuffle just hours ago,, and now he needs to be put down – permanently!" I barely registered the hedgehog's surprised face as I leapt into the fray.

Bunnie was sticking true to her words and guns [not that she had any actual guns mind, thankfully], and was also receiving some air support from Tails, though he was abit more… jerky in flight than I remembered him being? And Antoine, Sally and Rotor were trying whatever they could against the water beast close-up on the ground.

I knew it wouldn't be long until Chaos enacted his force field again so I glided on over, and gave him just as good as Bunnie had before. I think that made the water beast quite mad as he then started to form a load of water bubbles [which were much bigger than the ones he'd created in his devolved form back in the penthouse], from the lake itself and began flinging them in all directions. If you were a water party lover than you'd be right at home here, let's just say that!

We all got hit then, but managed to regroup on the lily pad at the centre of the lake in decent time. _If only we could get him [and us] out of this lake…_

"T-take t-this you oversized g-gimpy!" Tails cried out, swooping in out of the air like a bedazzled firefly. And I guess if I'd been paying more attention then I could've warned him in time, but the Freedom Fighters' apparent nail-biting fear of Chaos was the stronger thought, and so Tails was flung off the familiar pink-red force field. He landed in and amongst a batch of smaller lily pads, stunned for the moment.

Chaos' eyes shimmered with some unknown emotion [if the thing felt emotion at all], before growling splitting into four watery spheres and sinking back underneath the waters away from our sight…

* * *

*Cough* "We need… to find some way of getting past that… force field of his. Anyone got any ideas?" Sally said, still coughing back up some of the dislodged water her body had taken in.

"I have one," I volunteered, my arms proudly crossed over my chest, my gaze centred on Sally and Sonic in particular. "As Sonic may have passed on, I've already fought this water beast once today, and in that fight I bypassed the shield down by distracting him or waiting for him to perform an attack. So when that time comes, we need to strike hard, got it?" Everyone nodded, Sally looking especially impressed. _It was hardly a big motivational speech, geez… Still, I couldn't see the blue show-off doing it as well_, I smirked.

"Then let's do it to it!" Sonic boomed. It was a corny battle-cry, but it'd have to do I supposed.

And then were off in all different directions, with Rotor staying behind in order to go check on Tails off behind us. Then, as if rehearsed a dozen times, Chaos 4 half-surfaced from the deep, eying us all quickly with its eerie, slimy green eyes, before shooting off to the east side of the lake – heading right for me.

Squatting down a notch, I tensed the muscles in my arms and legs, and within seconds I took off. With my arms outstretched to my sides and my head down, I began my running stride, my shoes gliding across the large, silky textured lily pad. Four ninja-like hops to and fro later, and I'd closed half the distance between me and the beast. On that last hope I fully exerted my powerful legs and took to the air once again, noting that Sally and Bunnie were slowly, but swiftly, approaching him from behind. It was a perfect trap, now I just had to…

"Owww!"

Something had just grabbed and tugged on my dreadlocks, but the pudgy weight on top of me made me realise that it was more 'someone' than 'something'. I was steaming mad, who would dare mock the guardian of the Master Emerald?!

"Giddy up knucklehead, we have a Chaos plane to crash!"

Of course, it just had to be _you_.

"Sonic… Get. Off. Me. Right. NOW," I threatened as calm as I could, though I'm sure my face betrayed what I wanted to do the stupid twit nevertheless.

"Hey, lighten up buddy, I just wanted to hitch a ride and have an aerial seat for a few. It's not like we haven't done this before," the hedgehog said matter-of-flatly and oh so casually, conveniently forgetting, of course, to mention the fact that it was a do or die situation for both of us back then…

"… That was totally different, we're not in mortal danger of falling out of the sky to our deaths, and you're just hitching a ride on me to annoy me, as per usual," I hissed back, the whole thing making me forget just where we were going and what was there. And it didn't click until Sonic gawked his face down in front of mine, looking crest fallen, or pretending to be at least, before leaping off of me.

"Take this Big Drip 4!"

And with that enthusiastic corny tagline, the cerulean curveball hit the surprised Chaos right in the head, stunning him greatly. The force field back with a vengeance was now well and truly totalled for the time being; now it was time to finish this.

The others had gathered by my side, and at my glance they all knew what to do.

It was time to finish this.

* * *

"Take t-this you f-foul beast!" Antoine screamed, charging at the heavy-breathing [?] slump that was Chaos 4 atop the next lily pad over, brandishing that sword of his yet again. _Who gave him that_, I wondered, because too be blunt, he wasn't that good with it…

***Slash-slash-SLASH***

Slimy strips of watery flesh were hacked off of the stationary beast, but it's body appeared to have a unlimited supply of the stuff, so it was all for naught. I was about to tell the erratically jittery French man of this chink in his plan, but I was beaten to the punch [again].

"Antoine – go for the brain! It's his only weak point!" Tails advised from above, now over his brief dazed tumble.

"He's right Antoine, hon," Bunnie softly spoke, her hand resting on Antoine's shoulder.

"Oui…" the coyote deeply breathed, calming himself and bringing his blade to his side, shaking slightly still. "W-well, could anyone give me a b-boost up there?"

"I'll help y-ya, Antoine," Rotor stepped forward. "Me too, hon," Bunnie jolted in.

"O-kay then," Antoine nodded, and I noted that Bunnie's hand had stayed where it was just a bit longer than people would normally do so, but shrugged it off; it was of no matter to me whatever it meant.

The older man, which was still baffling to me at times, then was shakily standing atop the pair's shoulders [though it looked more like typical Antoine unbalanced than whatever Chaos drove in on them]. They looked like a triad of circus performers. Even with the added height, the foreign-speaking coyote still couldn't reach the brain, so they did what only manoeuvre they could take, they threw him towards Chaos 4!

"Aieeeee!!!" He screamed on his way, before closing his eyes closed, his blade outstretched and firm in his grasp.

The tension was thick in the air, and even Sonic could see that Chaos could snap out of his daze at any given moment, even _I_ was tenser than usual. And that worried me… _Was I becoming soft… or simply more 'Mobian'?_

In a second it was all over, the swift cut pierced the soft interior, coating the sword with green, gooey blood and making the water beast howl violently. , and the person in question fell into Bunnie and Rotor's arms, breathing heavily, with sweat down his face. "I'm so proud of yah Antoine!" He looked very relieved and very proud, which I think was deserved this time. Antoine certainly surprised me this time that's for sure. _Maybe they'll make an honourable swordsman of you yet._

"Good work Antoine!" Sally exclaimed, a warm smile on her face for a second or two before seriousness took over. "Now, let's finish him once and for all. Go team!"

* * *

Nods were exchanged and then we charged, with Sonic and me having first dibs, or we would have, but then Chaos was engulfed in a greenish-blue light.

We halted abruptly, taken back but this new turn of events and followed Chaos as his severely damaged body was elevated high up into the sky…

"Ha ha ha ha!" A familiar, _annoying_, laughter came from the edge of the lake behind us, to which we all turned around to. "Behold, my flying fortress! My creation, the Egg Carrier!"

_*Play Sonic Adventure – Egg Carrier Theme, A Song That Keeps Us On The Move*_

Chaos 4, by now, was safely within the metallic behemoth [and I thought the Death Egg had been a beast of technology]. All the greys, reds, yellows and greens just were a sickening combination to me, not to mention that eggman insignia on its side. Still, we might have to board it at some point – I mean, _I_, might have to, if any Master Emerald pieces were on there…

"Yeah, yeah... We know this already… NICOLE hacked your systems _good_," Sonic blurted out with a yawn – before realising his blunder. "Oh wait…"

"Bah! I'll just increase my security ten-fold, then let's see how much that trashy trinket will help you. Haha!"

NICOLE made an inaudible round of bleeps in Sally's ever favourable palm at that. I assumed the little thing was fully defying his claims about his apparent lack of protection systems, though.

Robotnik either choose to not to reply or wasn't listening as he continued his dramatic speech thereafter.

"Beware Freedom Fighters mongrels, for Chaos' true power has yet to be unleashed. Ha ha ha ha… We shall meet again!"

***Beep, beep***

"Lord Robotnik, the captive is on board. Are we ready to leave sire?" came a croaky voice from the airship above, which I indentified straight away as Snively – that slimy bastard. But wait, what did he mean by a captive?

_Oh no…_

"Amy? Amy, where are you?" Sonic began calling out, unusually panicky [more than I'd ever seen before anyway]. "Amy!"

"Ha ha ha, looking for your girlfriend Sonic? Well you're too late I'm afraid. She's mine. And soon, the war will be won, by me! Ha ha ha ha!"

The mad man's words were like a bucket of icy water to the hedgehog and the others, judging from their faces, I was just more angry than fearful personally, and growled strongly to show it too.

"You rotten swine Robotnik," Sally flared.

"Damn you Robotnik… damn you!" Sonic cried to the heavens, but it was no use, Robotnik had been teleported up into that same greenish blue light, and Amy Rose was still gone.

* * *

**MYSTIC RUINS ZONE / 11:21 AM**

_*Play Sonic Adventure – Mystic Ruins Theme*_

"Thank you Tails, NICOLE" I heard Sally say behind us, catching my interest.

"Listen up guys, Tails' radar has just picked up another Chaos Emerald signature, with NICOLE's confirming it," The Princess then pointed out over the plain of the Mystic Ruins. "It's somewhere over those mountains over there."

_Over those mountains eh… Could it be… that it's on the Floating Island somewhere?_

I primed my senses and began feeling for any Master Emerald signatures, this whole venture almost making me forget about them. How unforgivable of me!

Two distinct humming sounds were all I could pick up, but I couldn't determine an actual location on the island itself, so it looked like I'd be tagging along with Sonic and co for a while longer – which, surprisingly, didn't seem that bad really. _Perhaps, this is a sign that our comradely is deepening? _

"Hey, Sally," I interjected.

"Yes, Knuckles, what is it?"

"About that Chaos Emerald… I think it may be on the Floating Island somewhere, because it's just over that mountain and in currently floating in a big lake in the jungle. Plus, I can sense two Master Emerald shards over there somewhere as well."

"Okie then, it looks like we'll be taking a trip to the Floating Island then, if that is alright with you, Knuckles?" She further asked as she communicated it to the team present, her sense of honour still being one of her most admirable features to me, unlike someone else I knew…

"So it's off to Knuckles abode then? I guess it's time to follow you then, oh leader," Sonic smirked, giving me that thumbs up sign of his.

"Yes, Sonic, yes we are," I said through clinched teeth, thinking of the mess he could bring to the island I was still repairing, as I began to lead everyone out to the rock tunnel imbedded in the mountainside [that led into the jungle].

"Oh goody! The last one there is a rotten egg!" He shouted enthusiastically, feigning the action of sprinting ahead on the spot, gaining him a spot of laughs from Tails and Rotor at least.

This was going to be a _long_ adventure I could tell, but still, maybe this could be fun after all. At least it's something different for awhile, and I wouldn't realise it until after this adventure was all said and done, but a small smile stayed hidden on my face from then on for the next few days.

* * *

**Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream**

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And thus ends the eleventh chapter of this story arc [OMG he didn't take six months to update - shock]!

AUTHOR NOTES:

So how is my take on Knuckles going so far? I mean, I'm trying to really bring across the fact that he _really_ has been on a mythical island his whole life up until about a year before this arc takes place [and thus he's still very new to the world]. Team that up with his rough-manner and hot-temper and he could very well take things out of context [i.e. the whole plants thing in the beginning, because that isn't as effecting as say, us humans keeping pets, especially the more exotic ones, like I have in two parrots and a bearded dragon, is it?]

It's a shame really that this has never been brought about in the games, at all. As it'd serve not to make Knuckles [stupidly] gullible as he has been reduced to in the main titles, starting in Heroes [up until Black Knight restored it], but one who is simply inexperienced with the world. But oh well, character development really hasn't been Sega's forte for years now [I cry for you SA], so who am I kidding?

So yeah, I decided to make Knuckles not as gullible as he was in Sonic Adventure but allowed his hot-headedness [and Sonic's annoying taunts] to get them into a quick scuffle anyway. They still have a way to go before they become the very best of friends that's for sure. As for the reason that Knuckles wasn't affected by the 'fear factor' in this chapter, well, he's had abit more time around him than the others – _alot_ more. *smirks*

Oh, and Chaos 2 separating into multiple streams of water that propel themselves through the air, battering their opponent as they go? It was inspired by the smoke monster from the LOST TV series, which I am an avid fan of. xD

And Antoine… well I gave him a shining moment here, for a change. Bless his French[y] soul.

I still can't write action team scenes it seems, though. That Chaos 4 portion took _forever_ to do... *sigh*

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I hope you enjoyed this, and the chapters so far, any comments or ratings would be nice and appreciated! ^-^

'**In This Machine' is the next chapter, starring Amy and a certain Gamma…**

Take care ya'll ***smiley face***


	14. In This Machine

**Disclaimer**: _I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

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**CHAPTER 12: In This Machine**

_FLASHBACK_

"_Had enough playtime kids?" Sally sternly, looking at Sonic and Knuckles disapprovingly, as she said so. And darn was she right to be – what a pointless scrap, they were wasting time here! _

_The red echidna soon apologised though, but I thought I caught a small smile across his roughed features before he did so, I think. Nevertheless, even he treated Sally with more respect than any one of us, which was interesting. If I knew any psychologists then I'm sure he'd be quite the test subject I trailed off in thought, I respected him but he was still pretty anti-social with us, or at least he was when I was still back with them. _

_I wonder if he's changed at all since then…_

_The childish mumbling of Sonic in front of me almost had me in fits of giggles, but I held it thankfully. I don't know why but his immature side just added to his charm? In fact, it was beginning to recall the previous night where we…_

_I stopped my trail of thought there, before I could break my silent vow of 'whatever happens happens' with a shake of my head, dislodging the distracting thoughts. I had to focus on the here and now, on the mission. _

_Something has whistled by right by and through me, like the in the ear and out of the ear scenario, I'd completely missed what Rotor had just said. _

_From looking around at everyone, it can't have been good for they all had grim looks plastered on their faces. Was it about Robotnik and Chaos? Did something happen whilst I was in la la land? _

_I only caught a peculiar look from Knuckles, primed only at me, which was odd. I never got the chance to ask him about it before it all happened, though. And I didn't want to do it in front of the others for both our sakes. _

"_Still," Tails began. "At least it explains that 'earthquake' we felt when we first got here."_

_The earthquake from yesterday… that was caused by the impact of the Floating Island nearby…? I stared at Knuckles incredulously, but other than some small murmurs of agreement, nothing more was said on the matter, and he looked to deep in thought to have seen my look. _

_So then we just carried on walking in silence through the earthly plains and pass the large emerald trees, it was like a paradise found. But it wasn't to last._

_

* * *

  
_

_***Boom boom***_

_I screamed and covered my ears, the taste of earth and smoke prying at my mouth. I don't know where everyone else was, my vision was all hazy, I just knew I had to…_

_A penny for my thoughts was rewarded by a surface tree root connecting with my left foot, causing me to tumble over onto what felt like a grassy plain. Then I saw black and a flash of light green._

_Next thing I knew, I was groaning out loud, but at least the smell of grass was slightly healthier than that of soil and smoke, I supposed. _

_Still, I couldn't just lie here like a dead weight, so setting my hands onto the grass; I then pressed my upper body upward, so that it was pointing horizontal. _

"_Sonic? Tails? Knuckles? Anyone? Where are you, I can't see you…" I called out, craning my head circularly at every possible angle. _

_I heard nothing back._

_Here I was left in a sea of organic greens and brown inks once more, but there was no one else to be seen. I'd been, for whatever reason, left behind again… _

_I was about to damn my own klutziness when a whirring of activity suddenly began humming behind me, increasing in velocity with every second. And over it I could hear a familiar call._

_It was then I realised that I wasn't alone. _

_

* * *

  
_

"_Oh no, not you again!"_

_The light green box-shaped behemoth with pinky red eyes had returned, and worse of all he had a captive in one of his giant black hands, still calling that call. _

"_Crystal! You let go of her you big bully!"I shouted angrily, worried that he'd crush her in his hands at any given moment._

_Unsurprisingly he paid no heed, and charged at me again. This time though, I was ready for him and I dodged rolled out of the way to the side, my hands already to the hammer strapped to my back. [I hadn't brought my crossbow because I didn't feel ready enough to hold and use them both, not yet, it was… a work in progress.]_

_Crystal was tweeting at me, and though I still couldn't understand it, a vague notion of 'run' slowly came to mind. Well, to heck with that._

_The robot's next charge was met with my Piko Piko hammer [which was mainly yellow-gold with a red stripe in its centre], which knocked it away, leaving a gust of pink hearts in its wake. I don't know how or why that happened, maybe it was something to do with that 'ki' that Amber's old karate instructor had always talked to her about. But whatever it was, it was pretty, so it was of no compliant to me!_

'_Bolt brain', as I'd decided to call it, since I knew not of its designated name, then bounced right back. It stopped, and the golden, clear hexagonal-crystal atop its head then started to whirr round and round. I thought it was going to be a laser like Metal Sonic loved to use, but it wasn't, in fact all I heard as I ducked down to the ground was a low humming sound, its tempo increasing and decreasing as though it was circling me?_

_I was thinking, what the…_

_So I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to see [but I was], a transparent pane of yellow emitting from the aforementioned golden crystal and flowing all over me._

"_Hey, what are you doing to me bolt brain!" I shouted angrily at the stationary block of metal. And I was rewarded silence for my efforts._

_I couldn't feel anything happening to me, so he wasn't hurting me, and robots couldn't cast magic[s] nor poison you with such light to my knowledge. So that left one thing, it was scanning me, from my weight, to where my vital organs were, what arsenal I had… Heh. It must finally have calculated that I'm a threat to it huh…_

"_Scared of me, huh, bolt brain? Well, you better be!" I taunted, now on my feet and stepping valiantly towards the robot._

_I'm not the damsel in distress I used to be… now I can fight by myself too!_

_

* * *

  
_

_I hustled the hammer onto my back once more, and decided to go for a surprise offensive, pulling them out from the pockets of my red dress._

_Three had seemed like a good amount, and I held out the plain tarot cards at a slight angle in front of my eyes. I'd only been able to do it once or twice before, but hey, that obviously meant I needed the practice, no?_

'_Bolt brain' remained stationary as I cautiously closed my eyes to concentrate. I guess he hadn't pre-empted or scanned these, heh, I guess that's one to me and zero to Robotnik._

_If this works… that is._

_The tickling sensation began flowing through my fingertips, from somewhere beyond my arm and inside me. It wasn't overly ticklish, it was quite soothing actually, and it meant that I was on my way to completing the 'charging'._

_Had anyone have been around, they'd have said the card were softly glowing a light pinky-purple._

_As I was doing this, I made sure to keep my ears open for any sudden efforts on 'bolt brain's' part, I was, after all a sitting duck like this. But that was the price of this attack, at least for a beginner like me [who'd had no mentor versed in it either]._

_What happened next occurred so fast, that my reflex instincts just on went on autopilot. _

_The whirring of a hovering robot had quickly rived up and was heading my way, so I knew I had to move or finish, the passing of time having long dismissed this as a true 'surprise attack'. So I took a step forward, and lo and behold, the tinkling in my hands stopped. _

_My cards were fully charged, with what I could only assume was more of my 'ki', again. So then I quickly flashed open my eyes and send them flying._

_My gamble was only moderately successful, for one card missed the robot completely and was firmly embedded in the ground a distance away, the only two however, had hit their mark I was pleased to recognise. Now in its metallic hide my pursuer had two semi-deep cuts, which from the looks of things, had caused a fair bit of damage internally, as bolt brain wasn't moving. _

_He'd also unclenched Crystal in the process, who was now tweeting happily around my head. _

"_Didn't expect that, did you?"I uttered __nonchalantly__. _

_With a buzz in my stride, I hustled my hammer again and __vigorously began hitting home._

_And a minute later, I let rest my hands and walked away with Crystal from the flattened robot. _

_

* * *

  
_

"_Ahhh!" I screamed moments later as I felt a tight grip on my waist, my stomach twisting into a knot of fear after I'd turned my head. "Hey, watch it bolt brain! Let us go!"_

_I cursed inwardly, even as I struggled in vain. Crystal had been caught too in its other hand. I knew now, that if I'd stopped a moment to access the situation then I might have realised that bolt brain wasn't as damaged as I thought it was and avoided all this, but alias I did not. _

_I noted in my continued struggles that we were gliding swiftly over the plains of the Mystic Ruins, heading towards the deep jungle and a question rose to the surface._

_Before I could ask it, though, it was answered for me._

_Dead ahead, in a lower portion of the jungle was the Egg Carrier. I was going to be a prisoner by him, again._

_As my confidence began to deflate, I thought to heck with it, and uttered one last call before I was hit over the head by the back-palm of the robot's other hand. _

"_Help me, Son-ic! Anyone, please!"_

_And as the world was enveloped in darkness, all I could see were Sonic's grass-green eyes staring me with disappointment… _

_END FLASHBACK_

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_

***Tweet tweet***

_Huh?_

The floating through space feeling was beginning to lessen, the light-headedness clearing. Where was I going to end up?

***Tweet tweet***

_Is that you mother… are you singing again? _

Images of flowing dresses, lavish hairstyles, the clanging of glasses and of someone playing a piano far in the distance flashed like a camera show-reel through my mind. She, my mother was singing too, which was never a good thing… She could play the piano but she couldn't sing [_sorry mum_].

All of it was just memories of another place, another time… of one that no longer existed, because then I recalled that my mother, everyone… were dead – and had been for _years_.

With a gasp I awoke and full colour filled my vision once more, only to be met with the drippiest browns, greys, reds and blues I'd seen in ages. I was lying on a cold metallic floor, and wide spiral columns completed the layout of my obvious prison cell.

The lighting was better than what a prison cell would get, though, but it still reeked of something… off-putting. I couldn't quite put my finger on it; perhaps it'd seen use already?

_Of course, it would have…_ _silly_, an inner voice hummed.

Another tweeter from my arms brought Crystal back to my attention.

"You're okay!" I exclaimed, hugging the blue bird. By the look of her eyes though, she was petrified by where we were, and they were erratically gleaming at one part of the room to the next. _She obviously never wanted to come back here_, I thought sadly, _but until Robotnik or Snively makes an appearance then at least we can comfort and keep each other company_.

_*Play Sonic Adventure – Egg Carrier Theme, A Song That Keeps Us On The Move*_

"Now, now, calm down Crystal. It's alright," I said, patting her on the head lovingly.

All of a sudden I could then hear the subtle beat of humming, and had I not have done I'm certain that it'll never have noticed him. But there he was, yet another automation of Robotnik's. I groaned inwardly as I stared him up, taking him all in.

The robot in question was noticeably smaller than 'bolt brain' and was a concoction of vibrant reds, silvers, yellows and insect-green eyes.

"What do you want?" I shouted in contempt at my 'visitor', despite never having met this robot before. Then again, they were all the same weren't they?

Though, he was definitely leaner than the other one and after my cocky performance, I wasn't going to decide on whether he was 'meaner' too, especially not with that gun arm…

There was a pause before it spoke, which spooked me slightly. "_Hand me the bird._"

"Nope!" I contested, holding Crystal even tighter to my chest than she already had been.

"_Quietly hand over the bird._" It spoke again, in the same monotone, yet eerie voice.

"NO! Never!" There was no way she was going back into captivity to be experimented on, not whilst I had anything to say and do about it! And… if this was my last reckless act, at least I'd go down honourably.

"_Why not?_" It said strangely. Did it just ask _me_ a question?

"I don't need to tell you anything. You tell ME why you want it, now!" I retorted, trying to see whether I could find out anymore about Crystal and her family.

"_Does not compute…_"

"You don't even know?" I muttered, that completely baffled me, even programmed robots knew what their assigned tasks were for usually, didn't they?

I don't know why, but I knew then that this robot was unlike any other I'd met before, so I tried to pry in on that 'illogical' side of him and see if I could get him to 'crack'. It's not like I could bust down the bars and him, as my hammer was stored away on the other side of the room.

"I know you might hurt us both, but please… won't you help us Mr Robot?" I pleaded, gathering my courage as I walked as far as I could before the bars halted me, staring his insect-greens against my emeralds hued eyes [for all the good that would do, I was thinking].

"_Insufficient data. You have feelings for something you know nothing about. Illogical!_"

""I pity you. Love is not part of your programming, you are missing something good." I said truly, actually feeling a little bit sad for him – that was probably the most surprising thought I'd had in a long, long time, considering my history with Robotnik's robots. But nevertheless, I couldn't deny it.

A flutter of wings whizzed past me and then I saw that Crystal had flown out of the cell and was now flapping effortlessly in front of the robot!

"Hey birdie! Come back here quickly!" I cried in fear, not liking the fact that the robot was not only being all silent, but that he was now visibly _shaking_ on the spot. Could I have gone too far with trying to confuse his programming intellect?

_That gun arm could wipe us both out if we're not careful…_ I thought, eying it cautiously. I was ready to duck, dodge and roll if I had to. I didn't want to think about Crystal's chances…

My arms and legs began to develop that condition called 'pins and needles' in the few silent seconds that transpired, except this was more a case of cold needles of fear tensing me up.

Then the unexpected happened, the robot then swiftly turned around [something I figured was helped by his sleek frame and feet], and pressed down a giant orangey-red button just outside of my cage.

"_Go, escape!_" he called out at me, as the bars of my cage began to rise up into the ceiling. Wow, I was free now!

"Wh-what? You sure?" I said unexpectedly of myself. I don't even know _why_ I said it; I guess it just caught me off guard I guess. I just hoped that it didn't cost me my short-lived freedom already.

"_It's dangerous here. Hurry. We'll be arriving at the Mystic Ruins base soon._"

'Mr Robot' said in a hurried tone in his robotic voice, as he remained crouched over the aforementioned button, not looking at me.

Thank my lucky stars, it hadn't, so I turned to leave with Crystal, who'd flown back to my side after I was set free. An unrealised inkling inside of me told me that I shouldn't leave my earlier thought unsaid, however, so I friendly voiced it, not that I was expecting an answer of any kind.

"You're really nice. You're different from the other robots – you've got a soft spot inside your metal frame. If you want, we can be friends, okay?"

I quickly grabbed my hammer and then left through the grey door, leaving the robot alone.

No sooner had I gone through the said door did a bright white light envelop my vision.

"Ah! Who turned _up_ the lights?"

* * *

_*Play Sonic Adventure – Mystic Ruins: The Past*_

A distant rhythm of thumping… something tribalistic was the first thing I heard was the light resided moments later. Thereafter I was met with lush colour, as vast blooming greenery and tall strong palm trees surrounded me, and in the near distance I could see an ancient-looking temple and smoke rising from different points around it.

"Huh? What's this place?" _We're definitely not in the Egg Carrier anymore…_

Intrigued however, I began to wander slowly towards the temple, the smell of fresh, rich foliage and cool air subtly being replaced by a warm burning smell, which wasn't overpowering, as I did so. I assumed that maybe it was because the inhabitants of this place were burning some of the aforementioned foliage [or wood from the trees], but hey, what did I know? I had _no idea_ where I was.

Speaking of those who lived here, were those _echidnas_ in the distance…? They sure looked like Knuckles?! Well, from what I could tell from this distance away anyway as they wandered and bustled around the temple.

I gave it no thought but I just had to ask one of them, just how and why this could be, so I quickened my pace and ran towards the temple, making

"Hey! My name is Amy Rose; I need to as something of you. It's –"

I saw the head of an older looking echidna man turning my way, but a conversation with him was not to be as that [increasingly _annoying_] white light sprouted and consumed everything around again...

* * *

"–important?" I finished awkwardly as my eyes adjusted, again.

Opening them, the first things I noted this time was that the brown echidna, the temple, the other echidnas and surrounding buildings were definitely gone.

_Just where was I now? And why is this happening to me?_

It was only subtle from where I was, but my ears were picking up rushing water and something else from up ahead. And it was this point too that I realised something, Crystal wasn't with me.

"Crystal? Where are you birdie?" I called out, to no avail.

_I wonder where she could be…_

A little worried, but not exactly high on other stuff to do at this moment, I walked slowly towards the locale up ahead. I was still turning my head around and gawking at the sights, it that fabulous!

But I digress, up ahead was a small stone shrine and around it was a flourishing moat of water, a double-tiered one. And surrounding its circumference were thin stone walls with two breaks halfway around, looking as though the walls were the protective arms of a parent embracing the baby [shrine]. It was a sweet and thought-provoking image, for even though I had no idea where I was, even I could tell that this place was _ancient_, pure, untouched… It was like a dream.

_Maybe this is just that…?_

Any clear reason to dispel this all as just that was soon to be, well, dispelled, for as I reached the outskirts of the shrine I saw a figure ahead – causing me to stop in my tracks.

_*Play Sonic Adventure – Tikal's Theme*_

The girl in question here was obviously at least as old as I was [but probably older], and had orangey peach coloured fur and kind yet troubled cobalt eyes. Her fashion sense was amazing too, with her white silky tank top, green tribal skirt and clay-coloured sandals. The mummy-like bands around her arms and legs were also an interesting touch, I thought.

And as I continued to look at the ethereal-radiating girl [from where I was she was just ahead of me and at an angle, so I could see her whole], my mouth dropped. I'd only seen one other in my life and he'd been searching for a long time and here was actually an echidna, she must be one of Knuckles' missing people!

And not content to be bested by the white light again, I shouted out a friendly, but slightly jumpy greeting in her direction.

"Hey there, my name is Amy Rose, what's yours?" Figured I'd get the basics dealt with first before asking any more pressing questions.

No sound came out of my mouth to my surprise, and repeating again and again yielded the same result, wherever I was, I was being silenced so I decided to hang back and watch what happened next. _If this isn't a dream then I must be here for a reason…_

It turned out that the echidna girl had ventured onto a small settlement of cuddly aqua and yellow tinted creatures, who had come out of the inner shrine area and were now standing timidly in her way, protecting their home.

_I wonder if they can talk, like we Mobians can?_ I thought, as I looked back and forth between the two parties, wondering what she would do to qualm their fears [she definitely didn't look evil]…

"You're the… Chao," she sang out in the gentlest yet steady voice I think I'd ever heard. kneeling down on the ground in respect [as cute as these 'Chao' were, I doubted they were royalty]. "Don't be afraid. You're safe with me," she reassured them, with a heartfelt smile and twinkle of her cerulean pools.

I could see no danger here, so I was as almost as glad as she was when the still and timid darlings then came slowly forward. A joyful chorus soon rang out all around, the intelligible singing being infectious enough to bring a warm smile to my face, even though I _still_ had no clue what was going on.

_If she or the little guys could see me, I must look like a real clown!_

A Chao had hopped up into the echidna girl's arms, where she was petting it tenderly, which brought me back to the questions I wish I could ask of her. This place was just so surreal, and yet it oddly wasn't too unfamiliar either.

None of them had replied to her, so I guess that answered my earlier musing too.

I didn't want to stand around like a lifeless stick anymore though, so seeing as vocals were 'not permitted' here, I was walking on over to see if I could at least physically touch her and let her know I was there, when an uncanny resonant drip of water came from the shrine's moat.

It caught everyone's attention, but my ears were suddenly catching something else as I saw a cocoon of water begin to take a bolder shape on the moat's surface.

It all happened so fast, a gasp from the echidna girl and the familiar whirring of rushing white light took hold of me again, but I did manage to note one last thing within the outer walls of the shrine, namely the fact that there were six raised pillars and something atop many steps.

It also left me with one final thought as my journey in 'wonderland' concluded:

_That forming water… it had to have been Chaos._

_

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**EGG CARRIER / POOL ROOM / 12:36 AM**

"Gee, what was that? I wonder if I'm _dreaming_?" It certainly hadn't felt like any other dream, though…

***Tweet tweet***

"Aww Crystal you're okay! Where were you?" I said worriedly, hugging her tightly. She looked as confused as I was, so I looked around to see where we were now.

_Hmmm, lots of metallic greys, blacks, reds, yellows and greens, we must be back on the Egg Carrier. _

And it _smelled_ like Robotnik's own private pool [think barrels of sweat mixed with rotten eggs and you have a small inkling of what it reeked of], and looking in the centre of the room, what do you know; there was a big pool with a red diving board at the end.

I just had to shudder, and force myself to not intake any more oxygen for the moment, save my lungs the torment.

A freaky maybe-not-a-dream and now I was in a smelly Robotnik-only room, this was too creepy and barmy for me to digest at the moment.

"Oh my! We need to get out of this place as soon as possible, let's go Crystal!"

And with a chirpy tweet and my trusty hammer at my side, we were off.

_Freedom Fighters, here we come!_

_

* * *

  
_

**EGG CARRIER / BRIEFING ROOM / 12:45 AM**

_*Play Sonic Adventure - Egg Carrier Theme, A Song That Keeps Us On The Move*_

The room was a spacious one littered with doors on the ground level and rail corridors above that, filled with vibrant metallic reds, greys and reds, but the eventful occurrence within it at this very second took place near the far side of the room, near three doors,

Therein, the robot, Gamma, was learning the art of 'lectures' from his creator, the bloated man in front of him, Doctor Robotnik. If he'd had a more active consciousness [or one at all, at this stage], then the likelihood on the annoying meter would likely be sky high.

"I am very disappointed in you Gamma, especially after your impressive battle against your brother Beta. Do you not see how important that bird is to my plans? If the brat wouldn't let you have it then you should've used absolute force!" the madman was ranting on, clenching his wobbling metallic fist tight. His glasses-covered eyes never wandered from Gamma's own.

And like only a robot born to serve would do, Gamma stood there and took it, but even so, he couldn't understand why the bird was so important. All that he'd been told was to go and get it and he failed. He'd admitted that when he'd debriefed Robotnik just a minute or so gone, detailing how the hedgehog girl had adamantly refused the Flicky and so he'd left her be for now. The slight frothing of the doctor's mouth was also an oddity, which even his great CPU system couldn't interpret.

Robotnik stopped speaking and walked away to the podium behind them and sat down. And as Gamma didn't know what to do, he just carried on standing there until after some drumming of his fingers, Robotnik shooed him to stand amongst his fellow robots, who'd come in during Gamma's telling off.

There were E-100 series robots too, and looked exactly like Gamma except that each of the four standing were of a different colour; magenta, blue and orange respectively.

Gamma, using his tiny, but many micro-scanners that made up his insect-green eye scanned them all and in haste added their data into his memory banks and kindled it with that of Beta's. It may come in handy on day, should he need backup after all.

""Ah, hah... Testing 1, 2, 3..." Robotnik uttered in a comical tone, most unlike his usual booming and confident voice. Some could even say theatrical from his maestro-like arm movements. "Ahem... You, the elite Egg Carrier crew, are here today... to hear a very special announcement." He continued, pointing to the big screen behind him, which Gamma calculated was at 21 by 21 inches precisely and made in the poorest parts of the country of Chun-Nun in the east.

"Behold! It's a tailed frog!" As a lime green frog with orange patches appeared on said screen, with a longer tail than usual for their species, and oddly, it was kind of transparent as well. _This bears further examination…_ "How very unique! This frog is absolutely vital to my plans so I command you to locate this frog immediately."He spat. "You hear me? I don't care what it takes to get it. Just bring it to me! We haven't got time to waste, so come to attention!"

And with that Gamma followed his fellow kind to the Egg Carrier's sky deck, before mode-changing into a form similar to that of a mini helicopter, copter blades and all. In under a minute the E-100 series had all left in a multitude of different directions with only one thing on their mind, a green tailed frog.

Except for Gamma, who was subtly wondering where that pink hedgehog had gotten to now… as rising masses of conflicting zeros and ones, data, flowed through his shell.

The course of realising sentience did not run smooth, it seemed.

* * *

**EGG CARRIER / CONTROL CABIN / 13:03 AM**

_*Play Sonic Adventure - Robotnik's Theme*_

"Lord Robotnik, sir, I have something that I think you should see," the slimy, breathily voice of Snively, his curse of a nephew, came forth; interrupting Robotnik's 'thinking slumber'.

"This had better be _good_, Snively," he growled irritably, fidgeting to get comfortable again in the large, royal-looking seat of crimson metal. It was where he usually was, bar his private pool, whilst on board, as he had Snively to do the hard work of piloting the airship.

"Oh, I think you'll be thanking me in due course…" the midget minion trailed off, as he turned the main systems screen on to CAM 12.

The picture wasn't quality perfect, as lines of static ran vertically across it, but the actions on screen were crystal clear.

The camera, from where it was situated, had an angled eye view of Amy's cell from above, but its focus was wide enough to capture Gamma's act of freeing her and her escaping shortly after some sappy exchange.

If Robotnik could have afforded to, a bursting blood vessel in his brain would have sufficed the quivering rage coursing though his every fibre right now. Instead, though, he settled for grabbing Snively by his near-baldy head and throwing him into the nearby wall.

And tuning out all the whimpering thereafter, the mad doctor began to grind his teeth.

_How dare he defy me – HOW DARE HE!_ He was thinking, the thought rocketing around his head like a rollercoaster. One could see it as a premature sign of a cracking man, or just of a mecha-obsessed dictator being defied by one of his own creations, only days old. The choice is yours to make.

_Well…_ He began, grabbing a hold of the cord for breathing again. _He'd better find me that frog. Whether he does or not, though, Gamma __**will**__ be toast by my hand. That I promise!_

_

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**Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream**

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**

And thus ends the twelfth chapter of this story arc!

In this, I decided to bring in something that Sega have completely IGNORED since Amy's creation [despite the fact that reading & using tarot cards has been on her official profile since forever], seriously, the only time they've been shown and used is in Sonic Chronicles… I mean the always-changing-in-size hammer is fun and all, but this could bring an interesting facet to her character, playability wise [and did I forget to mention, that these tarot cards were the things that guided her to the Little / Miracle Planet on that day she _met_ Sonic]?

Rant aside… I wanted to show off that Amy is still learning the ins and outs of using them offensively [as well as reading them], and I avoided doing a 'Gambit' scenario as I thought it'd be… lame. [Gambit, for those of you not well-versed in comic superheroes, is a character from the X-Men whose special ability is being able to explosively charge-up, to keep it in simple terms, most small objects he touches. And his main weapon of choice is explosively-charged playing cards…]

So, their initial prowess is to slice-and-dice, thus far. Any ideas on a better revision or future capabilities on using them as an offensive item are welcome!

* * *

The whole 'parents can't sing' titbit was inspired by who else, my own parents! As I'm sure 99% of us think that is the case [even if it does extend to us too]. xD

Oh, and I didn't describe the other E-100 series by their designated names because I'm saving that for when he meets them all later. And I haven't decided on it yet, but I don't think I'll be covering the Tikal flash that Gamma has in the entitled game, though if it fits in I might do if just for the 'This presents a problem' line. He will see Beta in that room, though.

The Chun-Nun titbit was obviously a reference to the fact that sadly, most things in the world do seem to be made in China…

As for the obvious Heroes-inspired title, 'In This Machine', it was rather a random first choice out of my 'Chapter Titles List' but I thought it worked better than I first thought in the end.

As you have the parallel between the beginning and end of the chapter with the 'silent kidnapper / assassin who knows his purpose' with ZERO and the 'non-silent, hard-working but confused robot' in E-102 Gamma.

ZERO is also the 'alpha' [first] robot of the E series class of robots, whereas Gamma is the latest in the line [until Omega that is], so it shows a progressing in sentience as time has passed and new models have been built.

* * *

I hope you enjoyed this, and the chapters so far, any comments or ratings would be nice and appreciated! ^-^

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'**The Ice Cap Wastelands' is the next chapter, starring the Freedom Fighters and Knuckles… [**Although don't expect it anytime soon, as I want to work on my illustrations portfolio for abit, so it'll probably be next month or the next**] **

Take care ya'll ***smiley face***


	15. The Ice Cap Wastelands

**Disclaimer**: _I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

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**CHAPTER 13: The Ice Cap Wastelands**

"Second time unlucky I guess, huh Knuckles?" Sonic said in an awkward mix of cheekiness and seriousness, rubbing the back of his head as he did so and avoiding the guardian's eyes.

The facts were these, it'd taken them the best part of an hour to get there, but they'd finally trekked through the jungle wilderness with its many annoying insects, and of course, soul-crushing humidity. And it hadn't been just Antoine either, everyone apart from Knuckles who used to such pests and radical temperate[s], had done so at some point.

Now though, as aforementioned, they were finally here. Well, kind of... For as of this moment the gang was on the earthly shores staring at the non-floating isle in the centre of the giant lake.

"Yeah," was all Knuckles said in reply, away with the fairies in thought. "Now, who wants to be carried across first?" he asked of the non-flying members of the group.

"First can I go, please, Knuckles, getting out of tze jungle would be wonderful!" Antoine said warily. Inwardly he sighed and didn't want to be stuck with the oddball of the bunch, but the guardian relented and did so anyway. The sooner he [and Tails] did it, the sooner they'd all be done.

And a few minutes later they were assembled on the [former] island of the sky's shores, with a whole continent's worth of Angle Island Zone jungle ahead of them.

Antoine groaned again, slapping his head. Bunnie mildly squeezed his shoulder in support.

"Don't worry, Antoine, there's not that far to go, not with the shortcut up ahead." Knuckles reassured him quickly before taking the lead. "We have somewhere we need to go first if we're to make it to the ride to the Ice Cap Zone a quick one."

"Hey, wait," Tails said hurriedly, catching up to the huge stride-taking echidna under the first cover of jungle shade. "-just where _are_ we going then if not directly to the Ice Cap Zone?"

"We are going to the heart of the island itself; Sonic can fill you in on the way," he said in a matter of fact-like tone, and with great pride. "Now, let's get going."

Everyone nodded and they swiftly moved on, vanishing like chameleons into the catacomb-like undergrowths.

* * *

**MYSTIC RUINS ZONE / FLOATING ISLAND / ANGEL RAINFOREST / 12.38 PM **

The 'shortcut' Knuckles had spoken to them about had been revealed to them a few minutes into the humid jungle, well, that's what he'd just stated was the case.

"Uhh, not to question one's eyesight, but there's nothing there Knuckles…" Sonic pointed out dumbfoundly, staring at the huge array of rock and shrubbery in their path.

"Surely you jest Knuckles, for I cannot see anything there?" Antoine fretted, as he squinted his eyes at the aforementioned shrubbery.

"A hidden pathway?" Sally mused to Bunnie at her side, who nodded curtly, before turning to see what went down next.

Expecting all this, the guardian allowed himself a small smirk and stepped over to the towering shrubbery, and in one instance he pushed it apart to reveal a dark passageway within. The Princess had been right on her money, it only made sense for there to be faster ways of getting to places on a place so big.

"This tunnel will, following my lead, take us directly to the Emerald Chamber, so let's get moving," Knuckles wisely said, and without waiting to hear an answer he was gone.

"More hidden passageways eh? I knew that…" the cerulean hedgehog said smugly. "Just like all those mirrors in a fun house this is, you know," Sonic wisecracked. The faces of his freedom fighting colleagues didn't seem to agree with him, though. Rotor and Tails were chuckling under their breaths as they entered the tunnel in question.

"Sure ya did sugah-hog," Bunnie giggled, walking past him and leaving the fastest thing alive to be the last one remaining, much to his displeasure.

"Hey, no fair guys! Wait up!"

* * *

**MYSTIC RUINS ZONE / FLOATING ISLAND / EMERALD CHAMBER / 13.07 PM **

One relatively short walk through a dark, damp tunnel later… and they'd finally arrived at destination (A).

"I-I like what you've done with t-the place?" Tails said unsurely at the new sight. All the freedom fighters did, as it completely contradicted what Sonic had been telling them on the way here about the 'heart of the island' as Knuckles put it.

Not that it didn't _look_ any different from how their blue compadre had described it; it was still a circular two-layer elevated base of grey rock, whose crevice really did look like it went on forever [Rotor and Bunnie took excited looks down, the sight almost made Antoine faint for the umpteenth time]. And it was still surrounded by ancient machinery [and tubes] with weird glowing symbols all over them, which the Freedom Fighters couldn't decide on whether it was an unknown rock, metal or a hybrid type. It was rather shiny but it still bore rocky textures nevertheless. It was fascinating to look at, especially now that it wasn't underground but was _above_ it.

And as the hot sun continued to beat down on their backs, Knuckles knew that the horrid time for explaining things had come.

"Knuckles, if you don't mind asking," Sally began carefully. When he didn't answer, she continued on. The truth was the guardian was psyching himself up on how best to deal with the Princesses' question to be, seeing as it'd be a decent one. "Just how did the Floating Island's security system fail in stopping Robotnik's assault on the Master Emerald? I mean, it was at top notch power after the Death Egg incident, you told us yourself," she continued in her diligent yet friendly tone, coolly keeping his eye contact. "So what happened?"

Man, her perceptiveness never wavers, Knuckles thought. Unfortunately, it meant that he had to at least tell them of _him_… Had it'd been any of the others [especially Sonic], he would've slammed it down before one could say 'Chaos', but Sally was on his wavelength, at least in terms of how she devoted herself to her responsibilities and loyalty.

So he gave in [this once only, he promised himself], sighing up loud before opening that small portion of his heart, again.

* * *

"Sonic told you guys that the Emerald Chamber was situated underground in a sanctuary called 'Hidden Palace', and he was right, well, until recently at least. Things have… changed," the guardian preached to them sincerely, fumbling over his last words. It was apparent from his downcast, guarded face that it wasn't a tale he wanted to tell, but one that he knew he _had_ to tell.

"Now, before there's any more wise-cracks out of you blue show-off," he warned, glaring at Sonic to dare to invoke him again. "I'm only going to repeat this once, right?" he said in a milder calmer, but still [as ever] gruffly voice. Everyone nodded.

"A short while back, there was an intruder on the island. He… bypassed the security systems," he continued somewhat sullenly. "-even at the full power they were then," he spoke at Sally, whom just gratefully nodded him on.

"He was after the Master Emerald."

"Who'd have known?" Sonic mumbled sarcastically. Knuckles ignored him.

"In the fight that followed, he almost destroyed it, but I stopped him…" he trailed off, looking unable to continue.

"So who was he then, sugah? I can't be the only one who noticed that you'd never given this here intruder an identity," Bunnie inquired teasingly.

"Tze intruder, yes, why so hushy Knuckles?" Antoine said confusedly.

The others were about to open their mouths too, so Knuckles swift in to save them the bother [and to stead off this annoying interrogation].

"Because he was an echidna dammit, okay?!" Knuckles exclaimed quite loudly, punching the ground hard enough to leave a hole fit for a Galapagos Turtle to rest in.

The gasps were unanimous and the tenseness tenfold. Knuckles was breathing heavily with his back to them all – just who and what could one say?

Sally and Tails opted to try though, and stepped on over to their hurting friend.

"Knuckles, I can't pretend to know how badly you must be hurting now… how _angry_ you must be, but… we're here for you. Thank you for telling us," the Princess of Acorn comforted him gently, resting one hand on his hard shoulders. The guardian said nothing but a whimper as he nodded his head in thanks.

Sonic, unbeknownst to them all, was probably the most emotionally affected one present; sure he hadn't thought he was the last of his kind until recently and found that the only known survivor was a bad guy but, he knew how it felt losing someone and to wander the world alone. So to the surprise of his friends and colleagues – with no wisecracks in sight – he slowly came over and put his hand on Knuckles' remaining free shoulder.

That, both hedgehog hero and echidna guardian knew meant a lot.

"So w-what was his name Knuckles, if you don't m-mind my asking," Tails asked curiously, nervously, in front of the tempered elder.

The guardian turned to face him, gave him a small pained smile and answered the little tyke's question.

"Zachary, he said his name was Doctor Zachary…" the guardian scowled, staring off into the infinite distance.

"So what happened to him?" Rotor asked curiously, beating Sonic to the punch. The tenseness from before begin to disperse somewhat, but not the baking sun, unfortunately.

"I dealt with him, that's all you need to know," Knuckles said sternly, stretching his back as he stood up, avoiding their eyes. It was plain as day that he wasn't going to open up anymore, but for all that he had, they were all proud of him in their own little ways. For it was progress. Time [and circumstance] would do the rest, hopefully.

* * *

"These are the Zoom Chutes by the way," he started, renewing the topic at hand. "they are what I use to get around the island so quickly and efficiently."

"Cool, and good for us," Sonic stated happily, looking at the eight or so Zoom Chutes in question; which were amazingly enough were made of curved rock. It made one wonder just how technologically advanced the echidna race had been before they disappeared, or just how much time they had to waste.

Rotor was looking at all the ancient technology with geekyish glee in his eyes, and Tails wasn't that far off. Knuckles groaned inwardly, hoping they wouldn't tamper with it [too] much in the future. _The price to pay for having 'friends'…_

"So… can your little machine locate where the emerald is?" the guardian said unsurely, emphasising slightly disdainfully on 'machine'. His whole island had been overrun by such things thanks to Robotnik, after all, so he wasn't exactly a fan of modern technology…

"_I can indeed, guardian_" NICOLE spoke in her feminine voice, not sounding at all insulted by Knuckles' lack of faith in her capabilities. "_Please wait just a few seconds…_"

Sonic gave Knuckles a quick nudge, which he threw off with haste, mildly impatient at having to rely on this speaking trinket, but what could he do instead? It'd take _days_ to search the island grid by grid, and not even he knew every corner of it yet…

NICOLE began:

"_I have traced a chaos energy signature to the northern sectors of the island, the Ice Cap Zone. And it's not a perfect signature, meaning something must be blocking it._"

"Thank you NICOLE," Sally said gratefully, "_You're welcome, Sally,_" the mini super computer said before she was closed shut. .

"If the energy signature is being blocked by something then it's either a deliberate disruptor device or an unfortunate case of Mother Nature at bay," Rotor deduced, before turning to Knuckles. "Robotnik hasn't been here I take it?"

Knuckles hadn't thought about that when he'd left the island, but rather then admit _that_ in front of them all and be laughed at, he just said what he hoped.

"No, he hasn't been Rotor, so it must be down to Mother Nature. Maybe it's buried underground or something?"

"_Data updating…_" NICOLE stated out of nowhere, as the gang were agreeing on the possibility just raised.

"_2__nd__ Chaos Emerald signature found_"

"Wait, there's another one there?" Tails interjected with mild surprise.

"_Yes, it's somewhere beyond the jungle back across the lake,_" the super computer finished.

"Not to push you down, but why did speak this you not before?" Antoine questioned.

"_I… I just didn't notice it before, and I wasn't actively looking for it at the time, if I can speak logically. Technology like myself isn't without flaws, you know, Antoine._"

An agreeing grunt from a certain red head was mildly heard by all.

"Fairs enough, I just was wondering that's all," the coyote replied chirped, before hanging back once more.

"So what do we do now Sally girl, divide and conquer?" Bunnie mused to her best girl friend.

"That's exactly what we do, Bunnie, so listen up guys," Sally bellowed diligently, yet steady. "It's time to split up into two teams, with each one going after a single emerald before meeting up back at Tail's place, all right?"

The Princess then delegated the teams out:

Bunnie, Rotor, Tails and Antoine would be going after the jungle emerald.

"Oh no's! Not more heat again!" Antoine whimpered, Bunnie sighed amusedly, Tails looked psyched for more adventure and Rotor looked back longingly at the ancient technology of the Floating Island. The journey back [and ahead] was undoubtedly going to be a long one…

And the Ice Cap team was none than Sonic & Knuckles, headed by Sally herself.

With a handshake of good luck[s] between them all, the jungle expedition team left using the tunnel that'd brought them here from the Angel Rainforest in the first place.

Knuckles brought the others to one of the Zoom Chutes, with it they'd get to the Ice Cap Zone quicker than lickitty split.

"Me think I'm going to puke," whined a certain coyote as the powerful suction grabbed them all once more.

"Oh put a lid on it 'twan, I've already done my spines the once today and I want to keep it that w-" He never got the chance to finish before the world screamed past, melting into a blur. The term 'now you see them, now you don't' applied perfectly.

* * *

**MYSTIC RUINS ZONE / FLOATING ISLAND / ICE CAP ZONE / 13.34 PM **

It'd been like been trapped in a cocoon from which sound couldn't penetrate, and a real roller-coaster ride. Despite the sudden start, Sonic actually felt like doing it again!

The first thing the gang felt was the prickly cold sensation one would expect from such a frozen, compact wilderness. The second thing of note was that they were actually inside, in a cavern of solid rock and shining, thick ice [mainly the later].

"Hey Knuckles…" Sonic began.

"Yes, Sonic, what is it?" the guardian said evenly, as his eyes traced over the cavern, breaking it down from what he remembered of it. They were on a frozen pool from what the crack in the ice nearby showed. Not exactly the best place to be.

"Well, I guess the exit being inside helps prevent it from being covered over by snow and ice, but couldn't it have _nearer_ to the exit? This place looks so big; I can't see the way out!"

Knuckles chuckled mildly, shaking his head before answering.

"You forget, you blue-showoff, that I'm the guardian of this island and thus know _all _its secrets. This place is no different, the way out is through a hole up there. It leads to a snowy capped mountain side."

Following Knuckles' pointed arm, this exit was three tiers up from where they currently were; and along the way there were hanging icicles, thin ice bridges and rocky staircase-like platforms.

Sonic nodded, taking that on board.

"Well, there's no time like the present, eh?" Sally said, itching to get moving and not get frostbite anytime soon. She'd never had it, but it didn't sound nice.

And so they marched swiftly on.

* * *

A few climbing sessions over icy rock platforms later and they were on the first tier proper of the ice cavern.

"So any idea on how we get across this expanse, Knuckles?" Sally fretted somewhat, keeping her line of sight dead ahead and not down. There was a line of five or six hanging icicles in their path.

"As risky as it sounds Princess, the best way would be using the icicles as posts and jump from one to the next. Gliding with an extra person here probably wouldn't go so well, due to the lack of up draft wind and manoeuvre space," Knuckles said thoughtfully, before then leaping onto the icicle ahead.

"Hey wait!" was all the Princess managed to ring off, but he was already off and onto the next enlarged ice spear. _Reckless, the pair of them..._ She sighed, wishing that she'd brought her hiking boots on this venture.

Instead, she pushed the doubts and what ifs to the back of her mind & took a deep breath, and leaped across the expanse. Sonic had already gone ahead, literally bouncing from icicle to icicle.

Her strong thigh muscles had provided Sally with a good jump, she was now just over the halfway point of the dangling ice spear. The icy sensation coursed through her fingers to her toes, prickling and weakening blood flow with every passing second. She was also beginning to slip downward now, which was inevitability due to the lack of suitable hands and / or spiked hiking boots.

_I have to time this just right_, she whispered reassuringly to herself. _Or I'm going to be the next Mobian pancake recipe._

Two seconds later she exerted all the strength she could muster in her palms and flew through the cool air once more, her auburn hair thankfully short so as to not obscure her vision.

The Acorn Princess continued like this until the last one, where her thighs were beginning to ache, not only from the crystallising air but from the battering they received with every icicle leap. Wrapping ones legs around a spear of ice, hanging a good mile up from the ground [which was nothing but a frozen lake], and leaping from them to and fro wasn't as easy as you'd think.

It was an ultimate test of endurance and courage. Something Sally knew she just _had_ to succeed in, or face the ridicule [or losing faith] of her comrades and friends later.

"Come on Sal, it's just a little further," Sonic said reassuringly from the other side, on a platform consisting of ice covered rock, a far more stable commodity than what she was currently hung on. All that separated them was a sizeable gap [and drop].

To save her strength, she gave a subtle nod of the head and psyched herself for the final leap.

Then her hands gave way.

"Ah!" a startled cry came next by the sudden slip.

"Sally!" Both Sonic and Knuckles shouted, hanging right on the platform's end now for when they might be needed.

Thankfully, she managed to stop just at the last opportune moment; her legs were now hard pressed against the very bottom point of the icicle and the destined platform was now above her line of sight, just a bit. It was nothing to worry about, yet.

"I'm alright… guys, no need to fret," the Princess strained as she rearranged herself slowly so that her back was to the icicle and the platform was dead ahead.

She wouldn't be able to back-hug and rest her boots on the slippery structure forever, though, so, got herself into a kneeled pointed-like position and pushed off with all her remaining strength and flew.

Pretty much everyone has had that adrenaline rush, the kind that you gain after a good workout, or the one where sheer panic and determination kicks in as your goal [whatever it may be] is just in sight but is slowly slipping away. It gives a heated boost to whatever strength you have, and can even only weak [in general] human 'Overlanders' to lift heavy objects [such as cars] in order to save one's life.

The rebel leader of this freedom resistance had had such rushes before, as was expected from such a life, but never like this. It was an uncanny feeling, having invisible wings for such a short lapse in the order of things [and downright reckless too], but it was something else too… Those seconds could also be the most exhilarating points of someone's life, and Sally grudgingly admitted that this could be one of hers…

But like most birds, the flightless dream has to end sometime, and for all those incapable of such feats naturally it would always be too short, and so as the ground began to pull her down Sally outstretched her right arm as far as she could, aiming for the platform's edge and silently prayed.

Empty air was replaced with the crunching sound of softly packed ice and the feel of wet, solid rock harbouring underneath it, and with that the princess let out a heavy breath. She'd made it, the arms of Sonic and Knuckles grabbed at her arms and tried to rein her in. The headstrong woman was having none of that, though, and pushing her comrades away, she heaved herself up onto the ledge and swiftly stood upright.

_Thank the Source that Julayla and my father installed all that physical training with me, or I'd been a goner for sure_, Sally thought to herself as she dusted the snow off.

"That was a close one Sal!" Sonic said worriedly, eying her for any injuries. Thankfully there was none [that he could see]. Sally didn't feel anything wrong either, the cause of her aches being the vigorous feat she'd just undertaken. She was strong, sure, but she would never be on a Knuckles level even if she wanted to [and she didn't]. "And you call me reckless…"

"There was no other way Sonic! Neither you or Knuckles could have gotten me and yourselves across in one go, you know that," Sally retorted back, in a higher, almost annoyed-like tone than usual. "At least I plan out my reckless moves…" she began sternly. "-which I _only_ do if I have to," she quickly finished, seeing that he'd been about to interrupt her again. It worked like a charm; Sonic's mouth had opened and closed again like a goldfish, no comeback whatsoever. As bad as she should feel for raining one one's parade, Sally loved it when she did that to him.

"Are you two done?" an impatient Knuckles butted in. "We don't have time for all your pointless tiffs. Let's get going, I have _other_ things to do you know."

Nodding and letting their despite lie for another day, the trio pressed onward up the icy staircase to the cavern's second tier.

* * *

This tier was essentially a field of snow and slippery icy slopes, of the up and down variety. It looked 'simples' right?

Our merry blue hero was slightly ahead of the rest, waist deep in snow, with his care free hands behind his head. But, like most heroes, Sonic attracted trouble, and wherever he was on this ancient isle was no different.

"Sonic! Watch out!" cried the red echidna, pushing him out of the way just in the nick of time.

"What the heck was that for?!" came the disgruntled voice of the cerulean hedgehog, now with a bump to the head from his sudden shift into the rocky cavern wall.

"That," the tensed reply came, and as Sally and Sonic followed the guardian's arm, all became crystal clear.

The facts were these, one more step and the hedgehog would've stepped on a perfectly hidden grey switch, and this would've triggered a piercing event… literally, as the patch of primed spikes in a shadowed alcove above them told loud and clear.

"Yikes!" was all Sonic could think of to say, staring apprehensively at the spot he'd just been at, had he'd been another step forward then… well; the hedgehog didn't want to think about it. It would've left a nasty mess of spines, that's for sure.

Sally, however, was more curious [and grateful] for the act.

"_Thank you_ Knuckles," she said, glaring at Sonic knowingly.

"Oh yeah, thanks for the save, buddy. That was a close one, eh?" Sonic said sheepishly.

The guardian shook his head and shrugged it off, wandering why he saved the clueless, ungrateful idiot. Many things in the world didn't seem to make sense anymore actually, not since he'd met Robotnik and them all. Maybe, one day, it would, he dwelled inwardly.

"So, I know you're the Floating Island's guardian, but how did you know it was right _there_? And in impatient blues' case-"

"Hey!" one said hedgehog exclaimed.

"-why didn't you tell us sooner?" Sally finished, ignoring the outburst.

"Well, like you said, Princess, I am the Guardian of the Floating Island so it is my job to know where everything is," Knuckles coolly explained, not batting an eyelid. He was getting surprisingly used to being questioned like this, though it still irked him. It couldn't be helped for the time being. "And dare I say it, but even I have trouble recalling them all. Also, I fell for it once before," Knuckles said offhandedly. "I didn't make all of the traps and hidden crevices on this island, you know. A lot of them were here _before_ me," he finished, his tone deeper than before. "Is that all?"

"Yes, of course, my apologies, Knuckles. Let us make haste," Princess Sally nodded gratefully, bowing slightly. Knuckles nodded and walked swiftly on.

Behind him, Sally and Sonic exchanged curious glances and shrugged, before moving onwards to catch the guardian up. As they did so, one hedgehog echoed his thoughts.

"I still don't know why you keep bowing and talkin' to him so posh-like, Sal. He sure ain't no royalty…" Sonic

Sally hushed him up with frantic hand gestures, pointing to the unaware Guardian just ahead.

"This is his island, Sonic, and we are his guests – I'm only being polite!" she whispered to him strongly, her azure eyes ablaze with his childish annoyance.

"Hmph," Sonic grunted in return. "Too polite if you ask me…"

All Sally could do was sigh and refuse to give him an answer, she doubted he'd accept any she offered anyway. And with a small blizzard-like wind coming down from the ice slope ahead, the duo pressed on in stone silence.

* * *

"Finally we're almost there," a bored-sounding Sonic muttered, more tired from not being able to simply super-speed run to their destination than actual exhaustion.

By 'there', of course, he meant the exit of the cavern, which by the assembled trio's line of sight was right across the chasm that reigned high and supreme over the room they'd just scaled. The only thing in their way was a thinly sculptured ice bridge.

Hugging and dodging falling icicles suddenly started to look much more appealing to him and Sally now… Knuckles, however, wasn't fazed by it at all. The next few seconds unravelled, told them why.

The blizzard[y] wind from before was actually coming from the exit hole in the wall, which looked nothing more than bluish-white light, which had created a sizable updraft in the cavern. And a few seconds was all the hot-headed guardian needed in order to simply glide across and to the other side.

"Cheers for the wait, 'bud'," muttered an annoyed hedgehog, before turning to his comrade [and leader]. "You ready for this, Sal?"

"Ready as I'll ever be, true blue," Sally replied shakily. "You go first."

"Oh no, you don't! _You_ go first," he shouted seriously, prodding her forward. "Don't want any more almost-mishaps, do we?"

"I'll be fine, Sonic, _really_. Now go already," she shooed him forward, until his soles were on the first few inches of the icy bridge.

The hedgehog looked unconvinced, but he gave in and skilfully speeded across, no problem.

* * *

Once again, Sally had resigned herself to being the last across, perhaps out of pure stubbornness or a driven desire to succeed by her own merit, whichever you believed, this was now the case at hand.

Mildly wandering if Sonic had even barely touched the bridge with his sneakers at the speeding he'd gone, the princess lightly tapped the sole of her right boot against the ice sheet. It held, so all she had to do was tiptoe across it.

It made one princess wished she'd joined the circus when it'd been in town that one time… but alias, she had not, all she had to rely on was her own skill here.

With such alternatives out of luck, she took her first step onto the bridge and stretched both arms out like a trapeze artist, cemented in her will to not look down at all costs.

The ice was slippery against her soles, but not too much, to her relief. So a few steps more she took…

The wind blew gently against Sally, ruffling her hair, as if to wrap itself around her and comfortably push the princess the rest of the way. Sadly, she knew this fantasy would come to an end sooner or later with stronger winds that'd blow an insignificantly small-weighted being off to their death; her own.

She was halfway across now, cries of strong and mild encouragement[s] coming from the stable other-side. The end goal was in sight, and her teeth were beginning to chatter due to the frigid air. She had to hurry it up, so her footing became more brisk.

Sadly, this'd prove to be her unmaking.

_***Crack***_

The bridge wobbled – it was cracking up beneath her feet!

_Oh s-crap!_ rocketed through the Princesses mind.

"Sally, RUN!" Knuckles boomed from across the cavern.

"And don't look back!" Sonic interjected quickly, which stopped Sally's head in mid-turn, and so ditching the trapeze-like movement, she ran for her life.

The cracking sounds increased in velocity with every passing second her, draining out the frantic cries from her comrade friends.

Sally just had a feet or two to go, and she was about to jump when… the whole world dropped from view, making Sally's stomach jump to her mouth from the sudden jerking.

"SALLY!" Sonic cried out, his emerald pools wide with desperate worry.

Her breathing heavier than ever [or was that the air? She couldn't tell, nor cared right now], and with her heart in her throat, the Princess thrusted herself into the air.

The icy platform to salvation was in sight, and then it wasn't. All hope died in Sally chest at that point as gravity won and she began to fall, she even closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to see their faces. It was her way of shutting off the world as her place in it came to an end.

* * *

Seconds passed into the vastness of infinity and with her world shrouded in darkness, Sally awaited the inevitable thud that would shatter her mortal coil.

It'd been fun whilst it'd lasted she supposed, but now someone else was going to have to take up her mantle and finish the war…

_Wait… why haven't I felt the ground yet? If my life has to end I'd rather have it done with haste thank you very much! _

More seconds were lost into infinity…

By then, Sally had lost patience and so, slowly but surely, she opened her eyes, only to be met with a vertical world and a line of compacted snow just above her. It was then that numbness in her fingers [an apparent effect of shutting one's self down in the face of death one could strongly assume] turned into one of feeling, a familiar one known only as warmth.

_By the Source… could it be?!_

Daring to look up she saw that it was a gloved hand intertwined with her own, holding on something fierce.

She was _alive_. Sonic had saved her. _Wow…_

Sally's brain was still doing cartwheels over the sudden death-cheat, and this overwhelming sensation was enough to allow Sonic the courtesy of pulling her up the rest of the way.

"Thank you, Sonic…" she said gratefully, in-between drawn breathes.

"So am I forgiven?" Sonic said evenly, who looked like he had a mild case of 'puppy eye syndrome'.

She gave it a few seconds before replying. "Not yet, but you're definitely getting closer…" Sally teased with a warm smile, moving quickly by him to stand with Knuckles, who looked _so_ relieved.

"Come on, the Chaos Emerald is waiting," she said, turning her gaze back at them and then again not. Without a word, the hedgehog and echidna followed and they all walked into the bluish-white light.

* * *

**MYSTIC RUINS ZONE / FLOATING ISLAND / ICE CAP ZONE / 14.19 PM **

Cool, moderate air washed across their faces informing them that the earlier blizzardry wind had come to pass, for the time being.

The trio were near to the summit of [this] mountain on a large, flat snow-covered platform, and stretched out before them was a snowy ski hill going down, sparsely populated with evergreen trees.

At the bottom a flash of green sparkle could be seen, which had to be the Chaos Emerald!

Together it was a beautiful sight, but one that also looked too far away… just how were they supposed to get down there?

"So any idea how we'll be getting down there, Knuckles?" Sonic voiced enthusiastically.

"Hmmm," the guardian said thoughtfully, looking around. "Aha! We'll use these, guys."

Sonic was wow-sered and Sally was just tentative.

* * *

_*Play Sonic Adventure – Ice Cap Zone ~ Be Cool, Be Wild, Be Groovy~* _

Seconds down the mountain face, the Princess voiced her thoughts.

"I can't believe we're 'skiing' down a snowy caper on this," she fretted in Sonic's arms, who'd just swerved erratically to avoid a date with an evergreen; and by 'this' she meant the two dark blue pine-made boards [with spiky ends] that'd been laying against a tree at the near-summit. The fact they'd been only two was what Sonic had used to stop Sally from doing another bravado act, instead carrying her himself as he skied down the slopes. And it was kind of barmy to think about just how they'd got there in the first place.

Knuckles had told them to 'shove it' when questioned about it, so the duo didn't ask again.

Sally, despite feeling somewhat useless at this point in time, had decided to roll with it, for it was better than going bum sliding. And it wasn't that uncomfortable where she was, if she was being honest…

Up ahead she watched as Knuckles masterfully bent his knees down, quickened his right leg strides and twisted in the air after clearing a risen slope. He was no newbie at this that was for sure. Sonic, was doing good too, but he was doing more darting in and out of the evergreen patches, general speed related stuff than any skilful tricks.

"Sonic, do you think that we could avoid dancing with the evergreens for the time being? Those branches can sure whip a girl in the legs. _Not to mention infest my hair with leaves_, she thought. "Let's just rocket down the slope already, okie?"

"Oh, I'm sorry Sal, I didn't realise," he said, before his smile turned into a cheeky grin. "So… you mean like a race? To beat ol' Knucklehead?"

"If that's the way you see it, why not. One bravado act deserves another, I guess," she said in a familiar mix of cheekiness and seriousness.

"Let's do it to it then, Sal!" he boomed, pumping his leg strides to get the boost he needed. Knuckles was right ahead, completely unaware.

"What the-" was all he managed to yammer dumbfoundly out, before a large pelt of snow hit him right in the face from the passing speeding hedgehog [and companion in arms]. At a halt, he blinked once, then twice, and then saw red.

"Alright, that DOES it you blue-show off – prepare to be wiped out!" And with that threat now consciously known to all, he sped on after them.

"Oh my, looks like we upset Knuckles. Boo hoo," Sonic laughed.

"Umm, Sonic," Sally began.

"I'm sure that'll cool him down for a while whilst we go get the-"

"Sonic…"

"Chaos Emerald; then he'll have to admit that I'm the best skier, as well as racer and…"

"SONIC!" the Princess screamed, terrified.

"What is it, Sal, can't you see I'm on a roll here?!"

"Jump – BIG jump ahead!" she said, pointing erratically in front of their eyes to where a large red and yellow striped ramp was thundering closer and closer.

"Oh sh-"

"Have a pleasant flight," Knuckles smirked, knocking them to the side, allowing him to use the downward exit slope that was free of such terror-ific jumps.

"By the Source damn that echidna!" Sally cursed.

"Not so great now, is he?" Sonic shoved in bitterly.

"Shut up, now what do we do?!" Sally fretted, now stuck on their collision course, and not too keen on doing two death-defying experiences in one day…

"We do the jump and nail it, that's what," Sonic said, emerald hues filled with determination. Nothing was going to take out this hedgehog that easy.

".. Well, I guess there's nothing more we _can_ do," a dejected Sally said.

"Exactly. We have no choice, Sal, so let's do this!"

"Okay – now JUMPPP!"

And like a giant spring had suddenly been fastened to the soles of his feet, that was exactly what they did, leaving the board to freefall to its undoing as they cascaded through the cool air.

* * *

The next thing Knuckles saw was a huge splash of snow ahead of him, laying within it his rival and level-headed Princess. They were still breathing, thankfully; he didn't want to invoke the wrath of the others even if he could take them all…

"Ugh… That was a cheap shot Knuckles," Sonic groaned, shaking his cerulean spines of all the snow they'd clogged up on the journey thus far.

"All's fair in battle," Knuckles said simply, shrugging. "We're even now."

"Hmph, you and me will never be even, buddy," Sonic joked. "Things wouldn't be half as interesting otherwise."

"Well it was my idea to race down the slope," Sally admitted guiltily. "So I should at least take part of the blame…"

"Nah, forget it, Sal. I guess we all had some big-headed moments today, so let's just shake hands and move on. It's nothing worth spilling milk over, or however that saying goes…" Sonic said smoothly in his uncommon, but mature moments of wisdom. Sally nodded, and the fire within Knuckles' seemed to have been calmed too by the blue-show-off's surprising deceleration, and thus the trio shook hands before gazing north.

And shining in the mid-afternoon sun, there it was, the emerald green Chaos Emerald.

Their quest was at its end, and speeding ahead the hedgehog swiped the emerald hovering in the air by its own admission.

Or at least he _would_ have, had the earth not then rumbled, almost knocking them all off their feet.

"W-what's g-going o-on g-guys?" Sonic exclaimed, his head darting in every direction.

"I-is t-this a-an e-earthquake, K-knuckles?" Sally rang out, whilst trying to fetch NICOLE out of her blue backpack.

"N-no… T-this is s-something e-else, here it c-comes!" the guardian hollered above the increasing racket.

Then an explosion of snow and earth tore the ground asunder ahead of them, right where the emerald had been in fact… so as the dust settled, it grew only too obvious what was going on – someone else had beat them to the prize.

"I thought I'd gotten rid of his blasted robots on the island!" Knuckles growled angrily at the newcomer, who was a hulking tall yeti-like automation with bluish-white fur [stuck close to its body], a blackish-blue face and beaming crimson eyes. He also had giant earthly brown hands with straps across them, perfect for crushing you with.

"Yeti Spaghetti here must've come whilst you were out hunting for Mr Green, since the island _would've_ been a sitting duck for Robotnik," Sonic stated unhelpfully, prompting Knuckles to curse under his breath as they took fighting stances.

"Guys, look up there!" Sally shouted, breaking up their chatter, pointing to the abomination's head. Inside a clear [and most likely doublely reinforced] glass pane on its forehead was the Chaos Emerald.

"So what's the plan, Sal?" the blue hedgehog said, just slightly unsure of himself.

"My plan is to just tackle this thing and see how we can break its defences, not the best plan I know, but it's all I can make right n-now!" Sally said strongly, before back-flipping out of the way to avoid an aggressive swipe.

"Now that's no way to treat a lady buster…" was the taunt Sonic threw the Yeti robot's way, but being a simpleton in the AI department, it didn't much 'get it' and just ran with what its AI _did_ detail; that after acquiring the missionary objective, it was to eliminate any Freedom Fighters that it came across – it was all it needed to know.

And so with that priority burning away in its circuitry, the snow beast charged at the trio.

* * *

The trio dodged rolled out of harm's way, a feat made a bit tougher by the compacted snow field that was their battle arena, but it'd have to do for there was no caves nearby to seek shelter or hide in.

"I'll show you true strength big bot!" Knuckles battle-cried, slamming his right fist straight at the thing's chest and following up with a left knuckle-punch. It unfortunately barely dented it an inch, to Knuckles' displeasure.

"_Scanning…_" NICOLE bleeped from the sidelines, as Sonic began to snick the robot up behind, curling into a buzzsaw-like formation and springing with his own momentum towards its head. "_Yeti Zero: Its hide is made of the very durable Mobian Silicon, proving direct attacks useless,_" a statement that'd been backed up by both Knuckles and Sonic now [who'd only made it to the neck area, causing only a minor scratch]. "Its weight distribution is focused top heavy, leaving its lower regions vulnerable."

"Thanks, NICOLE," Sally said, flipping her super computer closed and whisking it back into her backpack. Now at least they had a plan of action they could follow.

Knuckles had stubbornly gone punching for Yeti Zero's chest plate area, again, which didn't add up to a dime, again. And Sonic had followed suit with his right fist, which hadn't worked too well either…

"Guys, this isn't working, we need to work together to beat him!" Sally

"I will, once I get some feeling back in my arm…" Sonic moaned, rubbing his right arm down.

"Then that serves you right for trying to be like Knuckles when you don't have his strength then," Sally mused playfully, jumping to avoid another swipe. "Touché, Sal, touché…"

After regaining the feeling in his limb, Sonic gathered into a spin attack, which powered into the robot's torso and knocked him back a few feet. Then he and Knuckles regrouped with Sally to hear her plan of action out.

They were to go after the Yeti's legs and focus on disrupting them, hopefully causing the robot to topple over and allow them to overwhelm it in the process. It was a gutsy plan, but hey, someone has to do it!

The stomps of the aforementioned cut their group huddle short and they split in different directions, aiming to confuse. Yeti Zero, unfortunately wasn't just a powerhouse of brutal strength, but had an ace up its hand straps.

And when a wide blast of frigid air shot out of them, the trio of freedom fighters knew that they had to keep their distance, save becoming a new brand of Popsicle, which is exactly what they did. So hard balls of ice was their reward, causing Sally to duck, Knuckles to use his fists as a guard and Sonic, well, to swerve in and out of the firing line. And he'd done fine, but he'd missed one stray shot, and it was currently coming up behind him unawares.

"Sonic, behind you!" Knuckles bellowed.

"Eh, what?" Sonic said cluelessly.

A powerful push to his chest forced true blue to gasp out loud as he practically flew into a nearby huddle of snow, a certain Princess now straddled atop him. The coolness of their surroundings did a bit to lessen their reddening faces, but it still took the bewildered hedgehog a few extra seconds to figure what'd just happened. From the ice ball just a few feet the way of whence he came, he'd just been… saved?

"_Now_ we're even," Sally smirked, poking the blue hedgehog in the chest, before swiftly rolling off.

"Heh, that's great news for my ears, Sal," Sonic said, standing tall.

"Let's take care of this blistering robot once and for all, guys!" Knuckles shouted, charging like a bull at Yeti Zero's left leg, with the others at his back.

* * *

Like a toddler with a new toy, the robot roared and erratically began kicking and flailing about in an attempt to halt the mounting assault. Save for a near miss on Knuckles' chin, this proved to utterly fruitless.

Using her prowess in the Judo arts, Sally slammed her left leg onto the small kneecap, which was followed by super-spin attack by the lovable blue hedgehog, and to finish this triple chocolate sundae offense was a bone-breaking punch by the one the aforementioned would later call by the name 'True Red'.

The combined might broke the balance and Yeti Zero was soon knocked off of his wall [metaphorically speaking, of course], and fell onto its back, but not before grabbing one Princess Sally in its giant right hand.

The spines on Sonic's back bristled with anger, why didn't this thing just lay down and croak?! "You let go of her you…"

"Sonic! Knuckles! Aim for the head now – don't give this thing a chance to stagger back up again – that's an order!" Sally said diligently, barely bothering to struggle in its grip for the time being.

_Or for Yeti Zero to 'super' up like Metal Sonic did with a Chaos Emerald…_ Sonic randomly thought.

The duo nodded, Knuckles smashing the robot across the face, causing its audio output devices to scramble, which did nothing more than to quench Knuckles' battle list [as one may call it] and or anger against Robotnik in general.

Sonic then ground to a halt, pointed up towards the sky and made a downwards gesture with his arms, as a cheeky grin lit his peachy face. Knuckles being, well, Knuckles, made a confused face and rubbed his head in irritation, just what was the show-off up to now?

Another pantomime cycle or two later, and he'd deciphered it, and arced his right hand's thumb upwards, a 'You're crazy' look on his face as they got into position.

Knuckles and Sonic both leapt into the air, the former greater still with his well-exercised leg muscles, before then slamming down the ball formed blue hedgehog with his strength. Sonic's buzzsaw impersonation this time went clean through the neck area, causing sparks to scatter throughout the head and lower body.

Sally, at this point had gotten free, but Sonic was still there to catch her as the giant began to fall.

"TIMBERRR!" our cool blue hero rang out as it did so, before a very wicked looking explosion flared behind the trio, leaving a half charred mess of metal parts. Knuckles groaned at the cleaning up he'd have to do later, again…

* * *

**MYSTIC RUINS ZONE / FLOATING ISLAND / ICE CAP ZONE / 14.46 PM **

"Hey, you don't think the emerald was wiped out in the blast…?" Sally began fearfully, as the smoke dispersed.

"Oh the emeralds? Nah," Sonic said casually. "Those things are indestructible."

"And more bad than they are good," Knuckles chimed in thoughtfully.

"Maybe…" Sonic mused; he'd never saw it that way before. "But then what about the Master Emerald?"

"That is a completely different matter, the Master Emerald _is_ special" Knuckles grunted, before turning to see what lay beyond the smoky mist.

And there it was, just like Sonic knew it'd be, the green emerald was completely unaffected by the explosion. And picking up in his right palm, it sparkled more than ever in the sunlight of the mid-afternoon sun. Or maybe it just 'liked' him, who knew?

"So mission accomplished, Princess?" Knuckles voiced, somewhat glad that it was over and partly not, for a reason he'd have to unearth later in his daily mediations.

"Yes, it was a complete success, aside from a few mishaps," Sally said coolly, taking in the fresh air on instinct. It _had_ felt like a rather long day, after all. "I just hope the other will be as lucky, and then we can stop Chaos."

"Amen to that Sal, amen to that…" Sonic murmured as they began on an alternate trail back to the Mystic Ruin jungle, where by now, their friends would hopefully be...

* * *

**Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream**

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And thus ends the thirteenth chapter of this story arc!

Little thing for you to think about – just why did Knuckles flare up at the question of the self-made ski boards? It's not plot focused, but it's an interesting nugget of information [if you can deduce it]. :-P

Ugh, I'm really no good at battle scenes. Maybe I should get some help with the last chapters', lol.

This chapter was mainly to explore the group dynamics between Sally - Sonic - Knuckles at this point, I think I did quite well personally. Open to your thoughts, of course!

* * *

I hope you enjoyed this, and the chapters so far, any comments or ratings would be nice and appreciated! ^-^

'**Sandstorm' is the next chapter, starring Bunnie and co… **

Take care ya'll ***smiley face***


	16. Sandstorm

**Disclaimer**: _I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

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**CHAPTER 14: Sandstorm**

_*Play Sonic Adventure – Mystic Ruins Zone*_

The group of four had successfully made it back into the jungle, with Bunnie opting to jet across the lake, Antoine be ferried via Tails and Rotor swim. And at this moment in time, they were travelling on a dirt road, that despite probably not have seen many passer-bys, still had bits of grass struggling to grow from within the trudged earth. And the air, whilst humid and moist, had no trace of the smog that the smog that usually came from the larger cities. It was as clean as a whistle,

To her left, Bunnie could see a different array of flowers stretching along the river bed that straddled close to their path. A profusion of white flowers stemmed from a shrubbery pinky red leaves [giving off a nutty zest], a tropical tree with hanging lavender blue flowers in clusters, heart-shaped ovate leaves from another, and a stunning tree with bright yellow flowers, which all mingled amongst the green grass that surrounded them. It was a far cry from the earthly, arid pines of the southern lands, a place Bunnie didn't want to go back to anytime soon.

"I wonder if Amy's okay," Antoine mused out loud, who despite admittedly knowing that he never had talked to the girl that much when she _had_ been around, still felt [or more hoped] that she could see him as an elder male role-model of sorts. Sadly, that day was a wee off for the self-confidence lacking coyote…

Bunnie and the rest were thankful for the distraction, given the clinging heat, which Antoine had finally kept his complaints about to himself just a while ago. Bunnie had threatened to bonk his head in if he did it again, mind. Still, with it came a ping of sadness, one that only one who'd not seen someone in so long, who then vanished again abruptly, could mildly comprehend.

"I'm sure she is, dun worry Anty," Bunnie said reassuringly, with her 'cute' little nickname for the coyote in tow.

"Are you sure, Aunt Bunnie? You're not just saying that to make us all feel better?" the inquisitive Tails said, who was fast proving that he wasn't as small minded as most young kin his age were.

Bunnie, knowing that wasn't enough, knelt down and rested her hands on his strengthening shoulders before speaking her mind truly.

"Tails, honey… Yesterday, seeing Amy again and all that she has done here, well, it's reignited mah belief in her capabilities, not only as a fighter but as ah person. I was afraid that her love-lust for sugah hog would act against her as long as she held it in this life, but now, she looks ah more mature individual – only such a former 'damsel in distress' could've held out as long as she must've against that robot," she paused to take a breath. "She's not just a silly lovesick girl anymore, so call it ah gut feeling if you will, but I just _know_ that she'll be fine. Maybe she may even be able to escape that great hunk of sky metal! I can't say I know the answers, but that is what I _believe_, and that's all we have right now. So dun worry, honey, we'll meet up with her again soon. It'll be okie, you'll see," she said, putting her warm heart on open display. It sent shivers of positive anticipation throughout her teammates, and invoked a lingering yearning deep within Antoine.

And after a brief hug between the young fox and his adopted Aunt, the group went on their merry ways.

At least, until five minutes later, when Tails spoke once more, taking advantage of the silence that had slowly grasped them.

"Hey guys, I finally got a clearer signal!" the young fox exclaimed excitedly, pointing to the Gameboy-like tracker device in his left palm. The other huddled around.

The screen glowed an eerie lime green, but a shining point of yellow light around the mid-point of the screen was the focus of their attention, for it was where the Chaos Emerald was situated.

"So it's just up ahead then," Rotor deduced quickly, not phasing his pupil-in-training [as he often referred to Tails as] an ounce, for he'd also come to that same conclusion.

"Tze clearing, could it be in that shrubbery mess?" Antoine mused – pointing ahead to where an interlocking web of large ferns stood proud in their path.

The heightened beeping from the tracker seemed to point to that strand of thought… so they stepped through the open clearing and started to push the hulking foliage out of their way.

As they struggled against the face-flapping moist leaves, Bunnie noted something.

"Hey guys…" she began, irked. "What's with all the blackened trees around here?"

"Golly, what could've happened here, a jungle fire?" Tails responded curiously. The air here still reeked of smouldering ash.

"Disgusting things, whatever set it," Antoine spewed quietly with venom.

Curious, but with a mission to see through, the four freedom fighters fought back against the weight of the towering ferns and won.

Then their world cart-wheeled and went into darkness, their valiant efforts against gravity, in turn revealing after the event that they'd stumbled onto a hidden mud stream that lead down into a massive hole in the jungle floor…

* * *

**UNKNOWN LOCATION / 14.16 PM **

As the beat of pulsing blood and nerve endings began to register again in one Bunnie Rabbot's body, she was all the more glad that she had metallic limbs, especially in her one arm. Had she'd not, from the way she'd landed; she would have at least one broken arm now. Her head still ached though; and there was no prompt cure for that here, nor the muddy stain on the back of her lilac getup-suit.

"Well that was a leisurely ride," mumbled Rotor somewhere nearby. A grunt from Tails agreed with him, whom was trying to unclog his twin tails of the muddy gunk that bound them.

"Peoples, _where_ are we?" Antoine's voice came suddenly in petrified awe, ripping away their own personal attentions and to their surroundings.

All around them and hard under their feet was tons of sand, still oddly moist; and it was all they could see for miles stretching out into the distance. The amount of light was poor, but the lack of a sky above them answered that query. Instead, what little there was streamed in surreally eerie through the jungle undergrowths, which they assumed lied a mile or two above their heads – essentially they were in some underground desert.

_*Play Sonic Adventure – Sand Hill*_

"Oh my stars, just _how_ is this all possible? And what do we do now?" a bedazzled Bunnie said, as a familiar humidity crept back along her skin, exposed and not.

"I have a theory or two about that," hypothesised Rotor, who was fascinatingly looking and analysing their surroundings with his shrewd black eyes.

"You do? Oh tell us Rotor – come on!" Tails practically squealed, jumping up and down, which in turn caused the walrus [and elder techno geek] to laugh joyously.

"Yes, mi iz also interested in this theory," Antoine chimed in. "Hopefully it iz most understandable?"

"Yes, it is relatively straight forward Antoine, man. No worries," Rotor reassured his comrade.

"And don't forget about me, darlings! I'm not usually one for history and all that stuff, but this could be interesting. No offense meant, Rotor honey," Bunnie said curiously, with mild interest.

"None taken Bunnie," the walrus smiled. "Now… as an avid history geek, if you will, I've known of the Mystic Ruins area for many years before this current venture."

"How so, Rotor, you're never been here before, right?" Tails interrupted.

"Books, Tails my lad, mainly books from the Knothole Library, but my father has been here before, passed through it on his way here, so he told me abit about it, visually and the like. That was before the Great War and all…" he trailed off, shaking away the rising hurtful memories with a flick of his head.

"But as I was saying, I've knew of this region and its written history for a while now, and in it the Mystic Ruins was said to have been a desert wasteland in the ancient past, for the most part. Explorers have never found anything concrete to support the claim, though…"

"Well, until we fall in here, right Rotor hun'?" Bunnie giggled.

"Yes, what a marvellous coincidence the emerald fall down here… Tails?" Rotor asked, eyes seeking confirmation of the fact. And after a minute or two of tinkering with his tracker, which had been buried under him in the sand dunes, Tails revealed that to be the truth. The Chaos Emerald was in a north-westerly direction from where they currently were.

"And there is more to my theory," Rotor began again, his voice fevered with mounting thrill. "but I think it best that we find ourselves a water source and revitalise ourselves first, is there an oasis of any kind down here you can track with that, Tails?"

"Oh yes, _please_, it's got mi here roasting again!" Antoine moaned, shaking his loose jacket back and forth fruitlessly.

"Umm, sure thing Rotor… just me another minute or so to change its detector settings…" the young prodigy mused out loud, before pushing a multitude of buttons. Not to say she was stupid or anything, but Bunnie was amazed at how speedy he and Rotor were with technology, it mostly all went over her head! I guess, she was more of people person and being history and tech savvy didn't necessarily come under that.

It was all cool, though, different people, different boats and all.

"There's a small batch of water a few miles due west," Tails interjected. "It's a little out of our way, but it'll be worth it I'm sure."

"I'm sure it will be honey, so let's get a movin!' Bunnie said happily, ruffling her adopted nephew's head. As they went to leave, though, they tried their best to ignore the unmistakeable tremors of something passing a few feet underneath them, which begged the question – just what could _live_ down here?

The Freedom Fighters didn't want to find out anytime soon, so with haste they disembarked…

* * *

"Fresh water this iz – oh joyous days!" cried a happy Antoine, taking greedy handfuls of the glistening, cold and surprisingly clear desert water from its oasis abode.

"Yes, yes, Anty, we heard you the first time," Bunnie said cheekily, taking scoopfuls of water, but in a slower and calmer manner than one coyote. Despite the fresh rain the denizens of Knothole periodically diverted from the nearby river and the waters of the Floating Island's Hydrocity having been visitors to the insides of Bunnie's mouth, she could honestly say that this was the best water she'd ever drank!

Tails was also gallantly perching his thirst, but Rotor wasn't that thirsty really, so he just stood back and waited for them to finish. He doubted it was to do with his bulk, since walruses to his academically sound knowledge, didn't retain drinking water in their bodies… so he concluded that he just wasn't thirsty. Occam's Razor and all.

A few chilling[ful] moments later and the gang sat around Rotor, almost like folk do when at camp and they're telling ghost stories, but this wasn't a ghost story for it was most likely true. But alias, back to the tale…

"… So after a great period, the desert flourished into the jungle that dominates it now – aside from this place of course, it looks like somehow a part of the desert sank underneath the tropical basin into this cave system and has remained ever since," Rotor began thoughtfully.

"Fascinating," Tails said, umm, fascinated.

"Yes, this iz riveting…" Antoine muttered, prompting an elbow to the gut from Bunnie's non-roboticized arm.

"An unknown civilisation came to occupy the Mystic Ruins not long after, but after a certain point in history they just disappeared one day, along with their great city," he paused for dramatic effect.

"So how do people even know that such a civilisation existed, if they left behind nawt a trace?" Bunnie asked curiously.

"We know because the land has scars, left behind from what could only have been wars. Plus there's an old temple around here, the only remnant of the great city, which whilst hasn't been explored completely yet, has provided scientists with lots of samples. The carbon dating proved that they were from the same era of time too."

Whilst certain terminology flew over Bunnie and Antoine's heads, they did look quite curious about it all, this trip down Mobius' memory lane. It brought a small smile to Rotor's face, knowing that even if they didn't understand all the schematics of it all, the fact they were curious enough to _care_, made him more proud of them as his colleagues and friends. And the continued questions from his most loved 'pupil-in-training', Tails, was all the more encouraged, and now was no different.

"Say Rotor…" the young fox began, "Do you have any theories of your own on this mysterious civilisation?"

Rotor frowned. "I don't really, to say the truth, for even I don't know all the known details yet."

Tails' face became crestfallen at that, so Rotor started up again, deciding to diverge a theory that'd he'd actually been analysing in the recesses of his mind for a long while now.

"However…" he teased, shooting Tails' downward frown into a mid-morning smile.

And minutes later, he concluded his thoughts.

* * *

**UNDERGROUND CAVE SYSTEM / MYSTIC RUINS ZONE / 15.26 PM **

They'd walked for seemingly miles now, and blisters were festering in their soles [or in Rotor's case, his foot just really ached], plus they were getting kind of hungry. That trail of thought led them back to Amy and her charming friends [and house mates], when they'd see her again and whether they could get Sally to 'unexpectedly' drop-in on the Worthington's for dinner later… It was surely worth a shot, right?

Bunnie decided to hold that thought till later, keeping her line of sight ahead of their pack, who knows what could live down here, beneath their soles.

"Do you really think that tze emerald caused a caving in?" Antoine inquired incredulously of Rotor.

"Well if explorers hadn't found this place by now, then it causing the entrance we walked into is the only rational thing I can think of, what do _you_ think Tails?"

"I agree Rotor, it was no coincidence that it fell down here and that entrance led us right to it," Tails backed Rotor up, causing Antoine to mutter inaudibly about being double-teamed by the two boffins.

"But it was that all the Chaos Emeralds were drawn to and around Station Square, but not the rest of the world, given the altitude the Floating Island usually resides at?" Bunnie interjected teasingly of the pair.

"Well…" they both began. "I guess it may have something to do with Chaos," they both said around the same time, shrugging. This left Bunnie somewhat satisfied, but she still facepalmed; she and Antoine both had been owned by the geeky ones. Still, it was better to be ridiculed by your mates than you're most hated of enemies, she figured.

Dropping the conversations for now and focusing on their final trek to the elusive emerald, the little group noticed that they were finally leaving the grainy, sinking sands and were slowly reaching more elevated ground in the form of a cave system, a moistly one from the patter sounds of their feet. It was a blend of browns and greys, as one would typically expect, and pointed stalagmites reigned over their heads threateningly. The ceiling was still another person or three above them, though, which calmed their nerves a bit.

_From jungle to desert to cave, what next, an ocean?_ Bunnie mused, _I wonder if Sally girl, sugah hog and radical red have gone through as much?_

The excited squeals of Antoine soon cut off that strand of thought, though.

"Iz sunlight, sunlight iz here! We are saved, _saved_ I told you!" the coyote said, pointing to the stronger beads of light streaming through the undergrowth-made roof, meaning they were nearer the surface.

"Antoine, honey" Bunnie began wearily. "I'm as happy as you are that we're on the way out of here, but we're only been down here for like half an hour or so, that's not that bad…"

"-we are saved, saved!" the coyote continued, unaware [or simply ignoring] the annoyed expressions of his comrades.

"Nevermind then…" she sighed. He ran out of steam, thankfully for them, about two minutes after. Blissful silence then returned, and it was good.

* * *

"My scanner is going off the charts!" Tails exclaimed, frantically tapping his tracker device, prompting everyone to halt.

"Where is it coming from Tails?" Rotor said loudly, trying to reason with the erratic acting fox.

"From up t-there!" the fox pointed.

And there it was indeed, the misty yellow emerald was embedded in a bumpy rock face up ahead. It had stuck out intervals of blocky solid rock at various points in its structure; it was an interesting one that was for sure.

"Mission accomplished," Bunnie said happily. Antoine also sighed in relief.

"I'll just go get it then Aunt Bunnie," Tails volunteered, spinning his twin-tails to get some momentum going. And then he whisked off, hovering pretty much straight up before darting forward to grab the emerald in question.

Try as he may, though, it wouldn't budge.

"It. Won't. BUDGE!" Tails strained voice came, echoing throughout the cavern.

"Hold on a sec honey, I'll be right" _*Rumble, rumble, RUMBLE*_ "… there?" Bunnie said, halting in mid-air.

The cavern rumbled and the wall started to _move_, rocks of various sizes were raining from the heavens, and Tails was still trying to budge the emerald!

"TAILS!" everyone shouted, "we have to leave. Now!"

"I'll. Be. Right. There!!"

Then all hell broke loose.

An arm and then a second came out of the wall, which stunned the Freedom Fighters until they realised that the whole odd looking rock face had actually been some sort of stone golem, and he had Tails and the emerald in the palm of one hand.

_*Play Sonic Adventure 2 – Egg Golem Battle*_

"Oh hell no!" Bunnie hollered.

"A Robotnik robot?" Rotor mused, pointing out the mechanical features to the golem, which were its metal plated face, red sensory eyes and rusty grey limb joints. Had a certain supercomputer been with them, they'd of found out that it's designated codename was an unsurprisingly _Golem Zero_. [Yes, Snively really rushed these things out, or just has poor taste in names…]

"Oh joyous days," Antoine groaned. "More robot fighting…"

"Ah well, hun," Bunnie comforted him. "At least it isn't that Chaos monster, y'know?" The coyote said nothing to that, but simply shrugged.

And dodging the falling rain of rocks, they scaled the living monolith, well, other than Antoine, whom was the last one up, due to his fretting [Bunnie's glare soon sorted that out, though].

In response to the 'fleas' overrunning its hybrid frame, Golem Zero, started flailing about, causing Tails to yelp loudly as he struggled to hold on to the brute with one arm and the emerald in the other. He didn't want to risk falling into the rock avalanche, you see, and he hadn't spotted the others coming for him yet.

Bunnie, however, was all riled up, and so with a joint effort of Rotor and Antoine using their palms and strength to 'spring' her upward, she then bellowed:

"Taste my bunny blasters, stone punk!"

Before opening up a can of whoop on the stone golem's face, sending its 'primal roar' audio banks into overload and stunning it briefly.

Unfortunately, this also caused it to pull the remainder of the cavern ceiling in, and a great band of sunlight from the world above to illuminate the scene.

* * *

Seeing this, Bunnie cried out in maternal alarm. "Tails! Get on out of this darned place. _Now!_"

"Right," Tails nodded affirmably, lifting off from the stunted palm he'd been hostage on. "Wait… No! I'm not leaving guys down here!" he screamed, moisture building up around his eyes.

"No, no, no! This can't happen to mii! I don't want to be buried alive!" came the French man, right on cue, shaking with paramount fear on the upper forehead of the stone beast.

Bunnie cursed quietly, before telling Rotor to hold on to her back and jet-blasting off with her feet. Swerving through the air she propelled herself in her adopted nephew's direction, only to halted by a large falling rock piece.

"Grab on Antoine!" Tails exclaimed, hovering above the jittery coyote.

"T-thank y-you, Tails, y-you're a g-good boy," he stuttered out, grasping the youth's hands with desperation, accepting the ground slipping away from under him for the expansive air.

"**To the jungle!**" Bunnie exclaimed, visibly struggling with her load [sorry Rotor!]. Tails and Antoine nodded swiftly and bolted to the big hole of light above.

Through strained eyes, the next few moments seemed to pass for hours in everyone's eyes, but an exhausted Bunnie managed to propel her and Rotor out of the hole, rolling abit, leaving them with heavy breathes under the beating sun.

Tails and Antoine were right behind them, clambering out of the hole warily, the yellow emerald still plastered to his right hand.

However, a rocky appendage suddenly and eerily rose out of the under depths without anyone's attention, and grabbed the young fox's tails, thrusting him back into the dark hole.

"Ahh, let go of me you creep" he screamed as the world above quickly grew smaller and smaller and the pressure on his fragile body increased.

_*Play LOST – Oceanic 815 [from 3:01 to 4:40] or There's No Place Like Home* _

"Tails! TAILS!" Bunnie screamed uncontrollably, backed up by similar cries as [ignoring their fatigue] they rushed to the newly christened hole in the jungle floor. Now it looked like it'd be a tomb for the young Freedom Fighter.

Then time sped up as a particularly big rock smashed into Golem Zero's head, destroying it and causing the rest of its body, as well as the ground underneath it to give way. Tails was knackered, so a whirl of his twin tails barely did a thing and so he fell hopelessly with a resounding splash into an underground river below.

As water filled his vision, and he struggled to keep his mouth shut, all the sound of the world was replaced with a monotonous gentle, airy tune of flowing water. And try as he may, his futile effort to doggy paddle to the surface did no good.

_So this is it then, _Tails thought sadly_, this is how I die._

_I'm so sorry… everyone… Amy… Bunnie… Sally… Sonic… Fare…well…_

And as Tail's body and mind grew light as a feather, his world became caressed in darkness.

* * *

**Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream**

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**

And thus ends the fourteenth chapter of this story arc [and the quickest update ever]!

* * *

The exotic tropical plants described [in order of appearance] for any of you interested are:

**WILD ALMOND. TERMINALIA**

**JACARANDA TREE. JACARANDA MIMOSIFOLIA**

**INDIAN BANYAN TREE. FICUS BENGHALENSIS**

**GOLDEN RAIN TREE. KOELREUTERIA**

The creatures underneath the heroes' feet were, of course, those sand snake / worm things from the Sand Hill portion of Tails' Sonic Adventure, well, adventure. In a world of talking anthropomorphic animals, universe-bending gems, magic and the like, even I cannot fathom on how to explain the existence of such creatures. If anyone has [or knows of someone who has] do feel free to direct me to it, for I'd surely be interested!

And no, the Egg Golem music doesn't mean that this was THE Egg Golem, I just thought it was fitting for the scene [since there isn't such a boss in SA1].

The LOST – Oceanic 815 music, for those who want to listen to it through the scene it heralds you can on YOUTUBE here: /watch?v=pWCMUtol_s0&feature=PlayList&p=7B05756E85184580&index=8

Finally, this chapter marks another insight into the mythology of Mobius so don't worry, the rest of Rotor's long-held theory will flash-backed to in a future chapter. I just wanted to tease it abit longer really, and where [and when] it's revealed will be _so_ fitting anyway! :-P

I hope you enjoyed this, and the chapters so far, any comments or ratings would be nice and appreciated! ^-^

* * *

'**To The Ends Of The Earth' is the next chapter starring Big the Cat and Gamma… **

Take care ya'll ***smiley face***


	17. To The Ends Of The Earth

**Disclaimer**: _I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

_Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "**Change The World**" by ARTIST Dream_

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**CHAPTER 15: To The Ends Of The Earth**

The silence doesn't scare me, nor does the darkness, for I'm long used to both by now. What does scare me is this place; this confined choking space I was trapped in.

_How had it come to this?_

All I could do now was try and sleep for the long morning to come…one where everything would be made right, I prayed.

_I hope you're alright, Froggy…_

_

* * *

  
_

_FLASHBACK_

"_So this is the big city, Station Square…" I mused out loud, fascinated yet suddenly self-conscious of myself as I walked out of the train station. _

_Grey stone and shining metal made up the abundance of the city around me, the buildings as tall as giants and the later curling into shapes like a wilted flower, something with four circular shapes as big as ripened coconuts underneath it and many more. _

_Beep. Beep. Beep. I heard all around, a sound unlike any I'd ever heard before. Did an animal, unknown to me, make that noise, I wondered. _

_Spirals, twists and lines of light whizzed around the black blanket above, making the stars vanish from them, blinding and burning across my inexperienced eyes. And I'd been to the Land of a Dozen Lights!_

_It was a far cry from the vivid and tranquil land of home. The home that was slowly seeping from my fingertips with every passing minute, I felt. And this place smelt of something… completely different than what I was used to, I couldn't quite put my paw on it confusedly. _

_I wish you were here Grandpa… you'd be able to guide me through this noisy place, this overcrowded place I further thought as my eyes finally lay on those around me. And boy was it a sight to me, a first._

"_So these are the humans that Grandpa told me about," I breathed out loud, as I stood alone in the bustling crowd. They were all so different and yet so similar, their sizes erratic from big to small. Some had muddy hair, others sunlight coloured, and the other few had midnight black or hair that radiated the hue of a dozen oranges, and all this was atop their head – how weird was that! _

_In-between them there were some other Mobians [as Grandpa taught me we were named as a whole], including a bunch that were moving together, a blue spiky hedgehog at their front._

_The biggest thing I immediately saw was that they were all moving around so fast, weaving in and out like they'd be caught in a Medusa Spider's trap. I didn't get it, why were they in such a hurry? _

_I relegated from my thoughts and set about asking someone if they'd seen my green Froggy about, there were so many of them, one of them had to have seen him, right?_

"_Hello, my name's Big…" I said warmly to a passer-by. They went past as though I was but a ghost, not even looking up._

"_Umm, excuse me," I began again. "Have you seen a green frog around here? His name is-"_

_A slight force impacted my right side, then my left; I was getting pushed in this whirlwind of activity. And no one heeded my words, no one seemed to care or notice me. My simmering gold eyes dulled somewhat as the reality of my situation became pointedly apparent. _

"_Froggy?"_

_The flurry of chatter about bizarre and faraway things I couldn't comprehend continued, and with no answer to my question it confirmed my earlier thought. No one seemed to care here._

_I didn't know anyone here but that thought still made me somewhat sad, were all humans like this? It seemed like such a fast, overcrowded world and yet it felt lonely – and I did not like it one bit, so far._

_So I briskly nudged myself through the crowds, not forgetting to say 'excuse me' for every passer-by whose path I altered [which was only common courtesy], and decided to sit on a seat made of several wooden planks, held together by more shining black metal. It had a plaque on it saying 'In loving memory of…' the rest was badly smudged, like the rain that washed away written words on my home sign. I rewrote 'Big's House' on it at the beginning of every year, just in case someone stopped by… It also reminded me of how the rain washed portions of the earth in the summer, leaving a trench of snow and ice in the winter. Was this a grave of some sort?_

_Whatever it was, I was glad for the opportunity to rest. But now, all I had to dwell on was the fact that I was alone in my search for Froggy. And I doubted I'd ever see Knuckles again. I sighed heavily as I contemplated what I was going to do now._

_

* * *

  
_

_A coursing rumble in my belly brought up another problem – because of this journey I hadn't yet had any dinner! Well… it's not like I hadn't tried earlier, if you asked me to speak honestly… [Not that I don't anyway, mind you]_

_It had been back on the train from the jungle while I was sitting back and looking outside of the window for the umpteenth time, the view was amazing, I'd never been on a train before [Grandpa had, but not me]. We'd never come round to coming to the city somehow. _

_Yeah… well, I was sitting there and watching the view when the air changed and my nose caught a whiff of something, and whatever it was it was new. From what my trusty nose [as Grandpa called it when he poked it jokingly] could pick up, it had essences of vinaigrette [something me and Grandpa both used in our cooking from one of the nearby plants to flavour] and something else, a very sickly sweet smell. _

_It made me giddy inside just recalling that smell, the wrapped up foodstuff the man called 'chocolate'. Hmmm, yummy…_

_He wouldn't let me have them though, because I didn't have any 'cash'. Which left me sad and very confused for the rest of the ride; just what was 'cash', and where could I find it, was it edible?_

_I never did found any of those out. Oh well…_

_And just when I was there, hungry and hope deflated, a familiar 'bong' sound chimed in my ear. It was coming from somewhere around my resting feet. _

_So I swung my head down and sprung up at who it was – it was my Froggy!_

"_Froggy! Buddy! I've finally found yo– Oomph!" Then I my belly met the ground. I'd missed him, again… Before he sped off this time, however, he shot me back a stone-still stare, his eyes glowing that weird blend of red and green again._

_By the time I'd clumsily got to my feet, Froggy had hop, skipped and jumped through a pair of opening and closing doors that made up one of the giant-like buildings. As I bobbled up and down getting there I caught the 'home sign' of the place, which read simply: Station Square Beach Hotel._

_Then I warily stepped up to the living doors, put one foot down in front of the [now] shut doors and closed my eyes nervously. Nothing happened, well other than a slight concentrated breeze from the now open doorway. So with both feet still intact, I stepped into the room beyond…_

_

* * *

  
_

_Next thing I knew my old pal was having me run again, just where was he taking me?_

_And so we cleared another set of living doors, fresh from the smoothed interior and into a small area of flattened, white stone and a pool of crystal clear water. The sight almost made me trip myself up, but I didn't, the females that were sitting around the pool on curled seats of something or other did, though. _

_They were wearing hardly anything, save for a few patches across their top and middle parts, which didn't bother me, seeing as I'd never worn anything either. I had never felt the need to and Grandpa hadn't said about different… so that was me._

_Grandpa always said he liked women like this, which every time I recalled it, sounded bad in a way I couldn't explain, and made my cheeks feel warm. And so, to be polite [and to get no more un-responses] I averted my eyes downward and briskly footed after my green frog – who was now making his marks in the sandy beach ahead._

_It all happened so fast, but I felt my right foot slide across my other and lock my toes between them, forcing me to the ground, and to my surprise, land on the legs of _

_She let off a ear-piercing shriek, her dark eyes wide as she clawing at me with her hands, which made my hurried efforts to get to my feet not that helpful. The woman said I was an 'evil pervert'._

_But I wasn't! Big isn't evil! I don't even know what 'pervert' means…_

_Loud and angry sounding shouts came from around me, and it was making me scared. What was going on? Did I hurt her legs? I didn't mean to, it was an accident… _

"_I'm really sorry," I'd blurted out without realising it, trying to pat her shoulder reassuringly. She screamed a fury of words at me again and swatted my hand away. _

_Oh what have I gotten into now, first Mr Robot, now this loud and confusing city; I just want to go home!_

_My body was getting all sweaty again as I ran as fast as I could to the beach, anything to get away from this place, these people._

_Next thing I knew, I felt a big thump to the back of my head. Then the darkness swiftly clouded my vision… _

_END FLASHBACK_

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_

I had woken up with a pounding head; it felt I'd been hit over the head with something hard. Thinking back, I released that I had been as I'd been running to the beach after Froggy, away from the scary screaming women…

Then I'd wished I hadn't woken up so soon as I took in my new surroundings with morbid curiosity, wondering just where I was. The room was dull to my senses with its grey, grey and more greys, and there was only one small light in the roof. There wasn't much else to see, since the room's ceiling lay just a bit above my head [_A/N: It was about a head or two higher_] and it was constrictively small, enough for one or two persons at the most, which made it very lonely.

And there was no sense of time in here, I didn't know how long I'd been cooped here, only a vague memory that it'd been around seven when I'd gotten into this city. That's what the train driver had said anyway. The pitch blackness through the room's holding barred window suggested that it was much later than earlier; I must've been asleep for hours. _Its way past my bed time…_ came to my mind.

So on that thought, I reluctantly curled up on flat wooden slab of a 'bed' and close my eyes. The wary, long day allowed for a prompt lapse into the realm of lovely dreams…

* * *

**POLICE STATION / STATION SQUARE DOWNTOWN / 09: 00 AM**

"So what are you doing in town, Mr… _Big_?" the man, who'd introduced himself as 'DCI Gene Hunt' said, slightly bemused as he read my name off a piece of paper with my 'photo shoot' pictures I'd done last night. He had a long orangey-brown coat on, like a camel, thick brown hair, untidily swept to the back of his head and shiny black shoes.

A woman was by the door, eying us both, but mainly me. I didn't like that too much… She had curly brown hair, patches of blue around her eyes, and wore a white jacket, with a bright red top underneath and long, dark blue jeans.

We were in a small room, not much unlike my cell, and it had strange dark windows you couldn't see out of and it was lit a little lighter, but just a little. The one question after another thing that I was being subjected to made it rather suffocating, to be honest. I hoped they would be done soon… I just needed to tell this leader the truth and I'd be able to go home, that was all.

"And any particular reason that you are not in any files, Mr Big?" he said, crossing over his arms and squinting his eyes. Did he have something in his eye? I wondered.

"I don't live in this city, Mr Hunt, sir. I live in the jungle with my pal Froggy, it's outside of town in the…"

"Mystic Ruins by chance?" interjected the woman by the door, genuinely curious. Her voice was warm and kind, unlike the rougher and jerky one of Mr Gene Hunt.

"Yes, that's exactly right," I said with a small smile, the first I'd done this day.

"Interesting I'm sure…" said Mr Hunt, rolling his eyes. "Wait… did you just say that you live in the jungle with your pal _Froggy?_" He uttered incredulously.

"Yes, I just told you I did, and I don't lie, Mr Hunt, sir." My eyes drooped in complemented sadness. "Something happened to him and he ran all the way out here," I said worriedly, recalling the weird gleam he now had in his eyes.

I looked up and saw the woman looking at me with her warm hazel eyes; she nodded her head to prompt me to continue, so I did. I didn't look at the dark eyes of Mr Hunt; something about them just eluded something scornful.

"The last I saw him he ran towards the beach beyond the Beach Hotel,"

"Hopped skipped and away more like," Mr Hunt said quietly, but I heard him, I'm sure he knew I do too somehow, else why say it?

"-and it was there that I tripped up and fell on Miss Hilton. I'm so sorry about that, my Grandpa always said I was a klutz… Is she okay?" I said, looking glumly at Mr Hunt.

"Aside from screaming blue murder she's fit as a fiddle," Mr Hunt replied with a small laugh.

"That's good then," I said sighing in relief.

"Yes, yes, so… you didn't force yourself on Miss Hilton in any inappropriate ways?" he then said, squinting his eyes again. Maybe he should go and see a doctor about that…

"No, no, it was an accident!" I exclaimed in mild panic. "Really, I'm sorry. So can I go home now…?" I asked hopefully, for I had told them all they wanted to know.

"Hmmm…" Mr Hunt said simply, getting up from the table, his dark eyes looking me and up down. Did he not think I was telling the truth? Why would I want to hurt someone, and one I didn't even know for starters?

* * *

The two comrades then huddled in the corner near the door, talking in hushed voices for a few minutes.

"So what do you think, DI Drake?"

"As bizarre as it all sounded, I believe him, sir. He didn't actively assault that woman at all. It was just an accident as he said. I reckon she probably just made it all up on the fly to get some free press coverage."

"You just read my mind _Bolly_; the pounce is too thick to do that. I bet he doesn't even know what a woman's who hah is, yet alone how to use it." He laughed. "You gotta watch out for these '_Mobians_', though, don't know what they're capable of."

The woman, Miss Drake, shook her head and pointed her eyes angrily at her boss. She obviously didn't agree with what he just said.

They'd been silly and had forgotten that cats like me had amazing hearing… After hearing that, which was like an angry monkey hitting me in the stomach [for getting to some growing fruits first], I hoped just for today that I hadn't though. I wasn't stupid, I knew they were making fun of me and it made me feel a deep sad, I don't know how else to put it…

Later on I'd realise that deep hurt was a combination of pained sadness and boiling rage, rage at their ignorance. Well, Mr Hunt's mainly. He didn't know me, he didn't _want_ to know me, just laugh at me – it wasn't fair!

_At least Miss Drake is warm and kind…_ I thought happily.

Still, after that I'd been let free of the room and the 'police station' [as the outside sign had named it as], so my darkened mood quickly evaporated.

So going faster than I ever thought possible, I ran to the edge of the city, outside the train station once more. Instead of risking the Beach Hotel and more trouble, I dipped into the sea and with my lifebelt, a gift from Grandpa back at that holiday; I slowly paddled my way around the hotel and stepped onto the beach beyond.

The sign read 'Emerald Coast' so I stepped beyond it, hoping that today me and Froggy would finally reunite and go back home, to the way life was before, and leave this confusing and hurtful world as soon as possible.

* * *

**EMERALD COAST / STATION SQUARE OUTSKIRTS / 09: 47AM**

_*Play Sonic Adventure – Azure Blue World*_

"Wow…" I said in awe, "I've never seen such a pretty sea before!" And it was true, I hadn't. I had seen [and been on] it only once before, on a holiday with Grandpa years ago… I'd an amazing time, once I got over the initial 'water fright'; supposedly most cats were doomed to never overcome it my Grandpa had said, but our species took to it a lot easier. Now it didn't scare me at all, I loved being in it, near it, everything.

The white hot sands whispered as I trod over it, as small cool water waves lapped against it. Large ripe coconuts rested contently in the emerald palm leaves, simmering under the summer sun at my side and ahead of me. I had my own paradise, but this was another one it seemed. I never thought I'd find another, not near _that_ city…

My smile was beginning to die away as memories of the last half day collected in my mind, so much had happened and I'd walked so far, and I'd barely eaten. That breakfast back in the cell had been horrible, all mashed up and no taste or flavour!

*_Rustle, rustle, rustle_*

My ears primed instantly, picking up the vibrations. It was coming from a nearby bush of leaves, which I knew couldn't move like that on their own… and it wasn't terribly windy today, there was just a light breeze.

So I stood my ground, waiting to see who it was. Hopefully it was friendly…

Suddenly a medium-sized coconut came flying out of the bush at me. Though, why was it glowing…?

_Uh oh… _

And without realising, my hands went to my fishing rod, covered in yellow and black stripes, and I waved it in front of me.

It didn't stop the glowing coconut, but it shielded my eyes from the dust that came from the ground when it hit it, knocking me off my feet.

Looking ahead whilst on my sand-rubbed knees, I saw just who had thrown that weird orange.

It was a monkey, half the size of me at least, and was an orangey red colour with black eyes. It was making high pitched monkey noises, which sounded like 'kiki'. And it had another glowing coconut in its tail, which was oddly shiny, ready.

He sure didn't look like any friendly monkey I knew… I had to get away from him!

"KIKI!" it boomed at me, throwing the glowing fruit my way again.

I tried to duck, but I was just getting… too… tired, so, I took a chance and whacked my fishing pole at it, sending it back.

An explosion of light and smoke assaulted my senses, and when it finally cleared my eyes widened. Then I screamed and fall back onto my behind.

Sizzling metal wires, sparks of fiery light and one head was all that remained of the monkey. There was no blood… so what _was_ this thing? Was it like Gamma, a robot with animal skin… or a demon in animal's clothing?

Either way, it sent shivers up my spine. I'd though… I'd though… I'd killed something without mercy, but now I find out that it wasn't even alive. Well, not like me anyway.

But still, being cautious I hurriedly walked away down the beach and into the more Palm Tree abundant cove ahead.

* * *

The sunlight couldn't get to me as much here, under all this shade.

Still, I was hot from the excessive exercise I'd had to do today already. I didn't like it. And I didn't like things that caused trouble and damage – for it'd only been after I'd sat down here that I noticed whatever that glowing 'coconut' was, it'd slightly melted away the middle part of my fishing rod. I'd have to replace it when I got home…

_Home… That's where I should be_, I thought sadly. _Bravery is for other people. Not me._

_My days are ones filled with fishing, scenic gazing and short walks, with the night spent by the __warm fire, grilling and smoking fish for dinner, reading and reciting stories that grandpa used to tell, of far-away places, of virtues and of mythical lore(s)._

_Not out here, being attacked by robots in animal skins that destroyed the surrounding environment for no good reason and not out here alone, and without companionship… _

_I don't want my life to change. _

As my eyes grow weary, the striking lights of the city and the sparks from that… robot combined in my vision. A memory… _that_ memory, was surfacing. So I let it – and then the world before me melted away…

* * *

_FLASHBACK_

_Ahead of us was the sea. I'd never seen it before, but my Grandpa had described it to me. There were supposedly about seven named seas in the world – and this one was called the Emerald Sea._

_It was beautiful, my eyes tried to stretch just to see it all. They couldn't though, it was just too big! The simmering dark green and blues of it, crystal clear, under this cool yet sunny day, it was like my eyes had been glued to it. _

"_Come on lad, we haven't even set sail on it," a warm laugh came, jolting me out of my wonder. I was very easily distracted, especially to things I'd never seen before; I was but ten years old after all. _

_My Grandpa was much taller than me, but it wasn't only that which set him apart from me, oh no, for his fur was a long, thick pale lavender, with brown stripes running across his arms – completely different from me! I was small, slightly round and had little whiskers growing on my face, which Grandpa and the few folk we'd met in our times together said made me look adorable. _

_But oh yeah, back to my Grandpa, he had whiskers too but they were much longer, with two curled and extending out from his nose and the other two coming straight down from the bottom of his mouth. It made him look so old and wise. A thing he didn't have in common with me was his size… He had muscles for arms and legs and a white hairy chest due to travelling a lot, at least before my parents left me… or so I was told, I couldn't remember much of it. All I knew and depended on was Grandpa; I don't know what I'd do without him. _

_He was also good with his hands, the boat we were going to use to cross this Emerald Sea was made by him too. I just stood there and held bits and bobs, Grandpa had told me it was an important job so I was glad to do it. Then we could set off for our annual holiday! _

_This one was a bit different from our usual, though, as we'd never crossed the sea together before. It was exciting but my body was in shivers. Was it due to the water? I thought._

_The salty fragrance of it filled my nostrils and I thought no more, I'd just been thinking silly._

"_Come on Big ya little scamp, hop on in – we don't want to sail out in nightfall do we?" my Grandpa said hurriedly, but with a warm twinkle in his yellow eyes even as he arced them to the sky, which was turning a pinkish-red, the harbinger of dark fall._

_I nodded quickly, realising that time was running away from us, and hurriedly clambered up onto the wooden boat's edge, only to stumble slightly backwards onto the sandy shore. _

_Then the water splashed all over my feet and legs. _

_It felt like thin needles of ice, the kind that fell back in the Mystic Ruins once in a blue winter's moon and beyond the cold it just felt really icky! This wasn't like normal water at all, it was slimy and stuck to me I swear. _

_I was shivering now, but not with the fear of the large deep sea, but the actual feel of it. And my eyes were rather erratic too, probably looking for where the next splash was coming from, I thought inwardly. _

_I must have looked a right mess for Grandpa… _

"_Oh my… Looks like I'll have to make something to help ya with your sea fright," Grandpa said reassuringly, holding me in his mighty grasp as we set sail._

_Or maybe my body knew better than my head after all… I thought dumbfoundly. _

_

* * *

  
_

"_So this is it?" _

_My words matched the confused expression on my face. We'd just arrived on the opposite shore [where thankfully my fur had dried], and at our destination._

"_Yep, yep, this here my little adventurer is the fabled Land of a Million Lights!" my Grandpa exclaimed happily, pointing out into our new, alien-like surroundings, as he peeked his head into his greenish-brown rucksack of many stuff._

_It was nothing like I'd expected._

_The air was thick with a sour-like smell, I couldn't quite place it. And the ground was very muddy, the brown waters bubbly and the trees tall and droopy. I'd never doubted Grandpa much before this day but today, I was wandering if we took a wrong turning somewhere…_

_My feet were drenched in muddy gloop before I knew it, and then a chorus of squawking and chirping noises sounded, as though they were laughing at my feelings towards their home. I didn't hate it or anything; I never liked that word… It was just unexpected that's all. And where were the Dozen Lights?_

_So I voiced my thoughts out loud to Grandpa. _

"_Grandpa, w-what is this place…? It's all stinky a-and… there's n-no lights."_

_Or well I tried at least. I still muddled my words mostly when I was nervous. _

"_Good things come to those that wait, sonny," he said, smiling briefly before walking on once more. _

_I guess I had no choice but to silently agree and continue on, I'm sure my Grandpa knew what he was doing._

_

* * *

  
_

_What felt like half a day later [but may have just been two or three hours], and we still walking on. My feet ached and I had at least one blister on my right ankle, walking in my sandy-coloured sandals for too long usually did that, it was why I preferred going barefoot. Though, for this, even that may have been silly. I'd probably have been sucked into these muddy depths by now if I had._

_The chirping sounds were more predominant now and the squawking less as we got deeper into this muddy forest, and the air was even improving, it was thinning and smelt less of sour muddy waters and more of breezy fresh water. _

"_We must be nearing our destination huh Grandpa?" I said happily to my right side._

_I was met with silence. _

_And it was only at this point that I realised that I was alone. Looking about proved this, for Grandpa was nowhere to be seen._

_Uh oh… came to mind. That and pure panic, what if something tried to eat me? I had nothing to defend myself with and I doubted I could run away fast enough…_

_The chirping sounds continued, however, along with something new now. It was highly loud and yet slightly airy, as though something was caught in its throat. I'd never heard anything like till now, so intrigued, and as though my body suddenly developed a mind of its own, I walked towards the source._

_I pushed past the bushy bush was ease and beyond it lied a small pond, with a few reeds here and there, a stream of clear waters coming in from ahead. But what caught my interest immediately was the log. No, not the log itself, silly, but what was on top of it! _

_It was a small lime green frog covered with orangey-red spots. Being in the jungle all my life I had seen a few kinds of frogs, but none of them made a sound like this one did, so it was probably unique to this region. _

_And I don't know how, or why, but his yellow eyes, bright as mine, caught my own and I couldn't take my eyes off him. Mild panic began flowing through my veins but then something happened that really made scrambled eggs of my head._

_The frog greeted me with a warm 'hello'. Yes, the thing spoke! _

_Mobians like me and Grandpa were plentiful in the world, but moreso were animals of the natural order, those that couldn't speak the language called 'English' by which many used [or so Grandpa had told me once]. It was why I was so surprised._

_But that clear and warm voice couldn't be anything but what it was, here was a speaking frog. It was either that or…_

_The bushes behind me rustled, and I put my hands over my eyes, meowing out and expecting the worse _

_I was startled then to feel the slimy feet of the special frog leap into my arms, he was shivering too. And as he said 'be ready for anything', we both huddled and waited._

"_Ooga booga!" cried a sharp noise, followed by a big shadow out from the bush._

_We screamed, or moreover I screamed and the frog croaked loudly. _

_As the shadow faded into the streaming sunlight, the lavender and brown furs of my Grandpa came into view. He had a cheeky grin on his face, and a playful laugh to back It up. _

"_Ah, so there you are. I guess hide and seek wasn't such a good idea after all. Just thought I'd liven the trip up abit, ya know?" _

_My Grandpa had been playing a hide and seek joke on me! I exclaimed within my head, feeling slightly hurt. Nothing too much, though, I guess it had livened things up abit. _

_His sorry-filled eyes trailed from to my froggy pal, now on my right shoulder._

"_Who's your new pal?" he asked of me, more casual than curious, pointing at the frog in question, almost as though he'd been expecting to see him. But that was just silly, no? _

"_Oh, him? He's a special frog I found here whilst we playing hide and seek, Grandpa. And I can talk to him too! Or well… he can talk to me and I can understand it…" _

_A hearty laugh and a ruffle of my head later and Grandpa spoke again._

"_Oh really? That's very interesting, don't think I'd heard of someone who could speak to frogs before …" he said genuinely fascinated. "So what's his name anyways?"_

"_His name is… Froggy," I said with a smile, getting a reassuring prod from him in question, and he hadn't protested and given me any other name…_

"_Well, welcome to the family Froggy chum, we don't have much, but we're all there for each other and what we did have is pretty darn great, isn't that right sonny boy?" my Grandpa said with warm, grateful pride, putting his arm around my shoulders and squeezing gently. _

"_You bet Grandpa!"I said with a beaming smile, knowing full well that family and now my first [other friend in Froggy mattered far more than anything we owned. Not that the food snacks and water in my Grandpa's backpack, along with our camping supplies weren't important. They were, but things like that just weren't as important or long-lasting as family and friends, or a good peaceful life – that's what I believe anyway. _

_After that, Grandpa hastily explained that where we were heading to, the 'special place', was just a mile or so ahead of us, where the pond's stream flowed and the musky greens and browns faded into a dazzling horizon._

_As the three, formally two of us walked once more [or in Froggy' case, rest on my shoulder], the thought temporarily dislodged from my mind resurfaced. _

_Froggy, as I'd named him here, was either an English speaking frog, a feat I didn't know was possible for a non-Mobian animal, even my Grandpa, or… I could understand 'froggish'. _

_Who'd have guessed?_

_

* * *

  
_

_We reached the clearing in just under another half hour, and boy was it worth the wait._

_Gone were the dirty and stinky surroundings, and in its place were deep sapphire blues and succulent emerald greens [that made up the trees]. They simmered like they were made of crystal as they weaved up into the canopy above like subtle waves on water. They weren't crystal though, I'd checked, rounded bumps along its surface and a trunk I could damage with mild ease, still met my wandering fingers. _

_Their blossoms ranged from butter yellows to peachy oranges, some of them inhabited by rainbow coloured butterflies, and a few others glowed with a small fiery light. Grandpa told me I'd see 'them' later. I never got to ask who they were, though, as I was quickly hushed into helping him set up the camping tent and fire._

_As we did, I enjoyed breathing in the fresh, cool air, a welcome change from the humid up and downs from home, and especially from the hot and stinky airs I'd grown sick of on the way here. I'm glad I'd stick with it though; it was such a surprise within such an ugly outer place. _

_Grandpa then set me on refilling our drinking flasks up, which were made from some kind of wood that didn't suck up water much, from the nearby lake. It was humongous! And from what little green obscured the surface, it had a plentiful number of fish and bugs for me and Grandpa, as well as the forest creatures to live on for a long while [or for two weeks, in the case of our holiday here]. _

_With the tent and fire setup[Grandpa had gone off to collect firewood and rub two of them together to get it going], we got out the fish we'd cooked in the morning from his backpack, covered in fresh leaves, and drank from our water flasks. We were tired, so fishing and exploring could save for the next day._

_Grandpas had decided, though, that now was the time for a 'bedtime' tale, a camp-fire ghost story. I didn't like the sound of it so I attempted to change the subject._

"_So what was that place we went through then Grandpa?_

"_That was the outer defense of the Land of A Million Lights, Big my lad!"he said. _

"_Outer defense?" I said, muddled. _

"_Yes, the desolate and murky bayou we just went through is the forest's means of defense against those that would wish it and its denizens harm," my Grandpa said seriously, a thoughtful look on his wary face. _

"_What's a 'denizen'?"_

"_It's another word for people, inhabitant, citizen, and so on forth," he explained clearly and simply. _

"_Ah okay," I said, accepting it but comfortable enough with using 'people' to not use it myself. "So… the forest is alive, like you and me?" I began, getting slowly sucked into the land's history._

"_In a manner of speaking, yes, I believe it is sentient." He raised up his hand to halt my inevitable question. "Which means, I believe it has a voice, wants and things it doesn't want, like you and me," he said full heartily._

"_I've never actually seen a talking tree, though," mild sadness in his tone. "Now, back to the ghost story!" he said merrily. _

_I groaned inwardly._

_

* * *

  
_

"_It was long ago, back in our Mystic Ruins that this tale was whispered amongst our Cat Clan ancestors, back when we weren't so small a group as we are now. But I digress, here we go…"Grandpa said calmly and ominously, his hardened yellow eyes flickering in the flames in the centre of us. He was on one side, and I the other._

"_It began without warning, no signs, no threats, in one night the foul swooped out from the cloak of the dark-filled skies and made themselves known. These foul creatures of the dark were never completely seen and so their appearance is still a mystery, some say that they were THE darkness; others simply thought they were invisible or superior hunters than we. Either way, it looked like we were in for a very bumpy time."_

_He paused to catch a breath. _

"_One night they, or it, it was never proved whether there was more than one of these tricksters, came through open spaces and into one's home, covering their __unsuspecting sleeping victim like a dark blanket.__ The next day you were gone for good, to who knows where or no longer had any will to live from the time you woke forevermore."_

_I knew they weren't there but the story was giving off vibes that made me feel as though long, icy were stroking my back. It was rather creepy. And it probably wasn't gonna get any better. …_

"_Those with their to live had fading strength and their minds filled with nothing but horrifying, hideous thoughts about all they knew, and also nightmares every night without fail." _

_Yep, so much for sleeping tonight, thanks Grandpa…_

_Froggy, now on my lap, nuzzled up in my fur, the beats of his heart a little faster than I'd noted usual. Looks like that made two of us not sleeping tonight, if frogs even had dreams? I wondered, why was he telling us this? _

_Still, despite my rising fear, I was intrigued by the tale and so I listened intently to its conclusion._

"_Some of our former people instead __appeared to have been opened to the movements of the future. Many died from the mental strain alone. One was written down, telling everyone that the cat clan would scatter and die out in the near-future if I remember correctly…" I remembered that Grandpa was a known 'party animal', whatever that was, in his early life and that he'd only travelled and studied histories from around the world later on. "I guess they were right, huh?" he sighed._

_I sat in silence; I didn't know what to say to that._

"_The dreams more importantly were deemed 'Black Doom' ones, and such was labelled a curse, as it left their victims restless and heavy-limbed, with sunken eyes from the sleepless nights spent fearing their return. They never did though, they only came once. For the unlucky ones, they were stolen away, never to be seen again, for purposes unknown."_

"_And then one day, it just all stopped," he concluded suddenly. _

"_They just stopped coming?"_

"_Yes. Whatever it was they'd come for, they'd found it elsewhere, if there even was something they were looking for. Who knows with these game-loving demons," my Grandpa spat distastefully, his eyes drew small and silted _

"_Anyway, Big, my son, it is near time for us to go" he said out of the blue, minutes later, in his usual warm-filled voice, a true smile on his face._

"_To go…? Where…?" I said feeling confused yet again. How many more times would this happen on this holiday?_

"_Yes, to the lake. You'll see," he said simply, before turning tail and walking to the lake's edge and sitting down. I followed; still awake enough for one last venture I supposed._

_

* * *

  
_

"_Look there Big," my Grandpa said a minute later, pointing at the water's surface. Something was down there, but I couldn't see what, even with my good eyes. _

_It happened slowly, but circular shapes began rising from the watery depths, many of them, swaying back and forth as they rose in perfect timing._

_As they broke the water's surface I saw for the first time what they were, fireflies, more than I'd ever seen in my whole short life. There must've been hundreds, thousands even. Maybe even a million…Together they buzzed in harmony, creating a serene sound [A/N: like a church choir], and as the fireflies rose from the waters, small light-infused droplets dripped off their tiny wings, creating a waterfall of yellow & orange light._

_It was the single most beautiful and amazing thing I'd seen in my life. My eyes were glued to them, wide as dinner plates and my mouth open in awe. _

_They then swayed and spiralled down and over the water in a hypnotic dance, creating tunnels and shapes of light. _

"_You are special, Big, more than you realise yet," my Grandpa said cryptically, but before I could ask him for more detail the lake-dancing fireflies spiralled madly into the dark night, fluttering across the crescent moon, their storm of light making the dark night sky glisten like a sea of living rubies._

_The land was lit up by a million lights, and I was in paradise. _

_END FLASHBACK_

_

* * *

  
_

**EMERALD COAST / STATION SQUARE OUTSKIRTS / 11: 38AM**

_*Play Sonic Adventure – Azure Blue World*_

_I loved that holiday, me, Froggy and Grandpa together…_ I thought fondly upon awaking, before that turned to sadness. W_e never did make it back there. _

_But when this is all over, Froggy, when I have gotten the demons out of you, we'll go back there and have fun, and honour Grandpa's memory – I promise!_

With this heart-lifting thought in mind, I almost missed the gentle breeze as it rustled the pale, emerald palm tree leaves. I grasped my fishing rod tighter than before, ready for another attack, but kept moving into the hilly areas of the Emerald Coast.

At the top of a hill I heard movement from ahead and near behind me. I'd had enough of this, I wasn't a bad guy who needed beating up!

"W-ho is there…?" I stuttered, my legs shaking, eyelids twitching, my mouth now dry and my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. Needless to say I was rather scared.

Out from the hills other side, however, hopped in Froggy!

I was so overjoyed that I began running at him, as he ran at me, seemingly completely normal again [his tail wasn't watery at least]. I almost didn't notice the humming coming from behind me, but using my cat hearings instincts I managed to and swatted it away with my fishing rod.

Thankfully it wasn't another animal in disguise, but someone who I never really expected to see again.

"Gamma! Buddy, it's me Big the Cat!" I called at him happily, hastily forgetting that I'd just whacked him or that I'd let Froggy out of my sight again…

The robot still the same as he was just two days before turned round to me, before speaking to me in his ever-present serious tone.

"_Big, please give me the frog._"

_Froggy? He wanted Froggy…?_ I wondered, alarmed. _What did he want him for?_

"_My master requires of him._"

_Ah, so that's why_, I thought sternly, angry thoughts about this 'Robotnik' surfacing in my mind once more, the one who made Gamma and had him as his slave. It wasn't right at all.

"No, I won't give him to you, or your master," I said defiantly, courage swelling through my body as I stared him down and held my fishing rod ever tightly, just in case…

"_Then you leave me no choice… I must remove you myself._"

And with that, he charged at me, his two back cylinders humming loudly, enabling him to clear the distance between us in seconds. Boy was he ever fast! I barely managed to jump out of the way, awkwardly landing on my belly.

I raised my hand up in protest, but he came at me again, so I did what I had to. I held out the rod in front of me, halting his attack. He kept trying to break through with mere force, just as I was using my strength to keep him back. It reminded me of something my Grandpa had said during a game of chess, where it had become apparent that either side couldn't win. If I remembered correctly, it was called a 'stalemate', which is exactly what Gamma and I were in right now – I had to end this.

"Gamma, please… stop this!" I cried. Still he kept trying to break through; I feared my rod would shatter into at least two at any given moment. "You're a good guy! You didn't burn down the jungle the other day, not in the end and with my help! Don't you remember?"

A few seconds later, he stopped, shook wildly and then as quickly as he came, went to leave. I took this moment to look for Froggy, but unsurprisingly to me now, he had already gone. My heart sank again.

"_Your frog friend is heading towards Robotnik's Egg Carrier to reunite with Chaos,_" Gamma said unexpectedly, this time in a tone I'd never heard him speak in before. It was one of friendliness that eluded some warmth, the first I'd ever felt from a robot. He seemed more… alive, if that was possible? What had happened to him since I last saw him, I wondered highly curious.

"_The Egg Carrier is parked at the end edge of these Mystic Ruins. Go there if you want to save him. But, if I find him first then I'll take him to my master. …Good luck._"

"Thank you Gamma," I said whole heartily. Seconds passed.

"Hey… wait! Who is this Robotnik and Chaos guy? And why do they want Froggy?!" I shouted, egarer to learn some answers. I was too late, though, for he'd already flown off.

_I guess it's time for a quick stop at home_, I thought, rubbing my aching stomach and gazing at my fishing rod, now just holding it together. Gamma had really done a number on it, not that it wouldn't have broken apart sooner or later…

And off I went, eager for time to regain my strength before heading to the bad Robotnik's base.

* * *

**BIG'S HOUSE / MYSTIC RUINS ZONE / 15: 45AM**

_*Play Sonic Adventure - Mystic Ruins Zone*_

"Ah, there we go, this is much better," I said happily, marvelling at my new fishing rod. Well, it'd actually been Grandpa's, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind me use it for awhile. The afternoon sun glimmered off its surface, revealing yellow and red stripes. It was about the same size as my old one but it felt sturdier and strong, I had no doubt it could catch me bigger and tougher fish, as well as defend myself from whatever more animal robots lied in Robotnik's base…

Thankfully, I'd also luckily still had some fish covered in leaves in my stone cooker fire, which was cold having not been used the night before. I'd soon got it going though and had some smoked for afternoon tea, the latter of which was made with jungle herbs and a sprinkle of sugar. I loved that stuff; it was so sweet and yummy!

Fully tooled up and fed, though still kind of tired from all the walking, I set out on my adventure.

As I did, I noticed two figures standing around a hole in the jungle floor, yelling out a name of some kind, something called a 'tails'? They seemed really upset, and I felt bad for them but to be honest… I was kind of wary of animals from the day I'd be having, so I quietly carried on, but silently wished them good luck in helping their friend.

It took me a few more minutes but I finally reached it, the beast of metal was unmissable in the great trenches of the Mystic Ruins. It's crimson hide was very demon-like and a moustached-head on its side gave me the creeps too. I gulped.

Here I go… I thought petrified as I strolled slowly over to the big grey door, which had two green spheres at its top, like eyes, a yellow like under those and rims of crimson red. It connected to a tunnel that lay in the air across the trench and to the insides of the beast ship, I assumed.

It opened as I neared it, causing that held breath of mine to squeal out. I didn't like them back in the city and I'll be lying if I said I liked them here either. And this one was pitch dark inside.

But oh well, I was here now, and I wasn't gonna turn back, the sooner I got this over with the sooner I can put the dinner on, then Froggy and I can relax the night away.

These were my thoughts as I entered the beast of metal and the darkness swallowed me. So I closed my eyes and began to count to five…

* * *

XXXXX

**Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream**

XXXXX

* * *

And thus ends the fifteenth chapter of this story arc! [_Wow, this turned out longer than I thought it'd be – I like it though!_]

* * *

The '**Medusa Spider**' mentioned in this is a fictional exotic spider, which was first coined in an episode of LOST in its third season. The spiders they used for filming were _**Argiope appensa**_, which are found on several islands in the Western Pacific Ocean, Hawaii, Taiwan and New Guinea. Further Information and pictures are in this link:

.org/wiki/Argiope_appensa

'The Land of a Dozen Lights' is in actually the '**Land of a Million Lights**' as cited in at least two maps of Planet Mobius in the Archie Sonic continuity [though it's yet to be seen], it was a Big blunder. :-P

The Froggy origin point was actually completely off the top of my head, never planned that, but thought 'what the hell?' when it came.

The characters of **DI Drake** and **DCI Gene** **Hunt** are shout-outs to the TV show 'Ashes to Ashes', the sequel to 'Life On Mars'.

Here's a snippet of when I shifted into Third Person instead of Big tense:

'Gene Hunt had always been a politically in-correct [_curse_] and the migration of a few thousand or so Mobians into the city over the last decade had just given him [and other like-minded individuals] the opportunity to get their stabbing oars out again. It was a seemingly endless cycle.'

And yes, Miss Hilton = Paris Hilton. I'm so cruel. :-P

* * *

As for the 'demon' stories Big's grandpa told him about, well, there's some truth to every myth, some more than others. This isn't a passing reference to fill the time. ;-)

And lavender **Maine Coon** cats do exist, but they're not common because it's banned from official breeding standards [since it's a hybrid]. I couldn't find an actual picture, so here's a rushed Photoshop job of Big with his Grandpa's colours [it's on my Deviantart account, under Scraps, on my profile page, cos web links don't work here... -]

What I imagined Young Big to look like came from a picture on Raichu288's DA account. And Grnadpa's phsycial features were derived from info on the Maine Coon Cat's wikipedia page.

Yes, a tabby cat is probably what Sega would bill Big as [if they ever give him an actual cat species designation] but his physical characteristics and personality are very, very much akin to a Maine Coon cat, to me at least! xD

* * *

I hope you enjoyed this, and the chapters so far, any comments or ratings would be nice and appreciated! ^-^

'**Spirit Journey' is the next chapter [**_and no, it won't be even half as long as this or the last chapter, that you can count on!_**]**

Take care ya'll ***smiley face***


	18. Spirit Journey

**Disclaimer**: _I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

_Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "**Change The World**" by ARTIST Dream_

_

* * *

  
_

**CHAPTER 16: Spirit Journey**

"Wha? Is this… heaven?"

To say that the fox boy was fairly confused would have been an understatement, for he'd felt consciousness swimming back to him long before he'd actually opened his eyes, and he'd almost shut them again when the light began to fade.

It was on the second attempt that he was finally able to keep them open fully enough to take in his surroundings.

Wherever he was, he definitely wasn't in the desert anymore…

* * *

Suddenly, unexpectedly, it all came back to him in one blinding rush; what he'd been doing and where he'd ended up. He, Bunnie and Antoine had been after the Yellow Chaos Emerald, and he'd got it, well, not before that nasty rock golem had caused everything to collapse… And he'd been too slow to avoid his tight grasp, not to mention too tired to fly as he'd fallen into the underground river.

The fox specifically remembered that he _had_ the emerald in his grasp when the waters had overcome him, but checking his body now it was nowhere to be seen. And that also brought about another concern, for as the boy instinctively looked down, he was expecting to see at least a gash in his chest, or to feel some throbbing pain in his temples, but feeling his head and chest, there was nothing. He felt no pain, at all.

But that didn't make any sense… for he remembered the pain so vividly – the giving-out of his every muscle to the light-headedness he'd felt from the overpowering waters, in short the utter belief that death had claimed him – it was too vivid for it to have just been a nightmare. Had he died, though? Sadly, he couldn't rule it out.

_Just what is going on here? _He thought in wild confusion.

It was only then that he looked ahead and around himself, which only added more to this surreal pan of oddity.

He stood on a clay-coloured path of stone, and surrounding him were hulking palm trees amongst large burning pots, whose smoke rose like weaving snakes into the blue skies, and which presumably served as a cooking tool in this daylight, the boy thought thoughtfully. And ahead was a large temple, with six gold squared platforms, probably sticking out, adoring the large staircase up to the dark open doorway at the top. It had a large but thin tower erected above it, as though aiming towards the heavens themselves.

It reminded him of another place he knew through hazy memories, where towering structures were abundant… a golden spire resided… and natural fragrances lingered… and where the land was a rich blue-grey. But he didn't want to revisit old memories right now… so finally, in looking behind him, he saw a stone doorway, currently shut.

He knew he definitely hadn't been here before, and odder still then his sudden relocation was that he could hear _nothing_, there was no wind, no birds chirping... Not even the echoes of roaring fires reached him. T_his is truly bizarre…_

Despite all this, his heart still beat at a normal pace, and to be honest he didn't feel an ounce un-soothed or uncomfortable in this strange place. He was rather excited actually!

There was only one other thing, an object, or moreover a group of objects, that could provide such a surreal [and mysterious] experience, the young fox thought, which were the Chaos Emeralds themselves.

_Could this by some side-effect of overexposure to them?_

His mind began whirring, calculating away. Rotor had been theorising such a thing for the last year now, especially after the 'Super Sonic incident'. It was the only thing he could liken the situation to, albeit unless he was indeed dead, then he'd be in 'heaven' or in the supposed waiting area between life and death. The boy didn't know whether to feel happy or sad that his mortal coil might have been severed, it just hadn't all sunk in yet.

Tails, of course, had no idea that his fellow echidna comrade had been in a very similar position only the night before. That was, if he was still in the 'present' at all.

With nothing more to go on and not exactly busy with something to do at this moment, Tails decided to take a short stroll up to the temple ahead for he could see people ahead, people who could tell him where he was.

* * *

A minute later he bumped into his first candidate, and then immediately recoiled. His body went numb and his eyes blinked madly.

_What the… is that an echidna?!_ He exclaimed within the recesses of his mind, swerving his head back and forth over the echidnas in question. Most of them ranged from a crimson red to a tough dark pink, but there was some light hues of other colours though, mainly purples, blues and greens. One thing they all had in common were the tribal marks they had all over their bodies, and not one of them included Knuckle's 'neck ring', much to the fox's interest.

"Oh my… Knuckles! Look what I've found! Can someone tell me where I am?" the young fox shouted in excitement, his mouth running before he knew it himself. When he did realise it, however, he closed his eyes intensely and halted his movement, ready for the inevitable stares, the one that with no words would class him as a 'mental freak' or such and the like.

No one answered him, nor turned their eye on him. It was though he was but a ghost, a non-entity in this world, which carried on as it had just moments before. His presence here looked to amount to nothing.

_Well I'm not going to be ignored…_ Tails thought brusquely. _I'm not a fully fledged hero like Sonic, Aunt Sally and Bunnie, but I still have a right to be heard!_

He'd looked over his shoulder for any wannabe intervener's before he, again, recalled the puzzlement of his situation. So, with a quick twirl of his twin namesakes, the young fox launched himself at the nearest male echidna [He was hardly gonna strike down a lady, echidna or not, now was he?].

The purple furred giant didn't know what hit him, in fact, he was fully unaware that a young mobian fox with two tails had just sailed right through his torso area, and was currently facepalmed to the orange-red burning pot behind him. Needless to say, the plan had gone bellies up. It confirmed at least, that he couldn't interact with anything [_no sounds_] or anyone [_no communication, nor physical presence_], which was, well, to put it in layman's terms, quite a bugger.

After he'd recovered from the inevitable spurt of dizziness, he staggered up and dusted himself down, looking around for somewhere to travel to.

_Maybe I can get some help at the temple?_ _Or at least get near enough to it for a smooth fly up to its peak, then I could look around_, he added, qualming the nerves that were aching to make themselves known across his body. He hoped to get back to the others soon or at least find someone to talk to…

Luckily for young Freedom Fighter, Lady Luck seemed to be traversing through the region, as a sound flowed out from the temple's base. It was simple, but beautiful, and although it had no spoken words, it simply felt that it could've or indeed did have some attached. The melody was definitely sung by a girl, one with a soft, delicate voice. _But just who could it be?_ _And how did they break through whatever sound barrier stood here?_

With these questions in mind, and an enchanting melody on the verge of fogging his young mind and making him forget the aforementioned, Tails strolled on over the base of the temple ready for some talking, and hopefully some answers.

* * *

_*Play Sonic Adventure – Tikal's Theme*_

His slow steps crawled to a halt as he took in the figure just a metre or two ahead, the echidna girl who was been singing a mysterious melody. She was older than him, probably around Knuckles' age even, and had orangey peach coloured fur, the typical long-snouted peach skin muzzle, and kind cobalt eyes. Unlike the typical tribal skirts and shirts her fellow echidna brethren wore, she however wore a silky white chest-covering top, and a long dress of beige, green, and red triangular patterns, which fringed along the bottom hem. A long, flowing piece of green fabric also flew out at her dresses back elegantly.

She also had clay-hued sandals [like her peers] and many jewellery-girly-like items. All this along with the melody she'd sung, gave the girl an ethereal, even princess-like look. And though he'd never tell Sonic, or even his Aunt Sally [or Bunnie], he had to admit that he thought she was pretty, for a girl.

"The servers are the seven Chaos Emeralds," he heard her say abruptly, halting her singing midway. She sounded wholly content and at peace, as though she were praying with eyes wide open.

"Hello there, friend. How are you?" she said friendlily, locking her hands behind her back.

He was too stupefied to breath, yet alone reply to this _unexpected_ turnaround. But Tails managed to roll out something in the moments thereafter, still caught intently by her captivating sapphire eyes. It was like she could not only see through him, but through the veil of the _universe_ as well, which, by any shot was as unnerving as it was unlikely. Still, she seemed very kind, so he thought best to at least thank her!

"Uh, thank you. Hello… umm, what were you saying before?"

"It's something my grandmother taught me. I'm never to forget it," the echidna female said fondly, placing great emphasis on her last sentence. Her grandmother obviously meant a lot to her, and resting her hand to her chest seemed to only further compliment that thought, at least in the growing, young mind of Miles Tails Prower.

"It goes like this. The servers are the seven Chaos," a short intake of breath and a pause is taken.

"Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos," she spoke with great devotion, like a mantra that contained hidden prowess. For all Tails knew, it did. It certainly sounded interesting, and he hoped to hear it to its end, only to be slightly saddened that the poem had been recited fully.

"But I'm still not sure what it all means," the girl said simply, not an ounce of frustration in her voice. Perhaps she liked puzzles? "But the number seven is the same as the number of Emeralds there are," came her next statement, filled with simmering anticipation. The girl was obviously making headway in connections to figure out this riddle of a poem.

"Did you just say Emeralds?" Tails uttered, his curiosity even more puckered. _Could she be talking about the Chaos Emeralds…?_

"Forgive me but I don't think we've ever met before," she said curiously, suddenly, smiling a small smile, one that seemed to light up the near vicinity even. Though that could've been just the sunlight… "I'm Tikal and you are?"

The curtain of white washed over him like the stroke of a large paintbrush and then receded just as quickly, the world dissolving into swirls of blues, reds, browns and purples, which were slowly taking form.

Then Tails lost consciousness once more, hoping that a return ticket was now within his reaches – his fears of being dead evaporated completely, somehow. All Tails knew now was that he definitely had _alot_ to talk to the others, especially Knuckles about!

* * *

XXXXX

**Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream**

XXXXX

* * *

And thus ends the sixteenth chapter of this story arc!

Tis was a short, potentially even _filler_ chapter [though not really] to follow on after the epic long chapter last time. There's only so much you can do with this short [but important] scene in the tale really.

I hope you enjoyed this, and the chapters so far, any comments or ratings would be nice and appreciated! ^-^

* * *

'**Sky Chase Battle' is the next chapter.**

Take care ya'll ***smiley face***


	19. Sky Chase Battle

**Disclaimer**: _I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

_Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "**Change The World**" by ARTIST Dream_

_

* * *

  
_

**CHAPTER 17: Sky Chase Battle**

Bunnie and Antoine had eventually found the young Tails lifelessly clinging onto the side of the underground river, miraculously with emerald in hand. And he was very much unconscious. The concerned pair were not looking forward to meeting up with the others again, their hearts filling with more guilt with every passing second, but it had to be done sooner or later. And so the meeting was arranged to be at the…

* * *

**MYSTIC RUINS ZONE / FLOATING ISLAND / EMERALD SHRINE / 16.38 PM **

"Bunnie, Antoine, how'd this happen?" Sally asked quickly and sternly within seconds of seeing her adopted nephew's lifeless body, her throat constricted with emotion. The young Freedom Fighter had one or three cuts here and there, but the medium-sized gash on his left arm was of particular worry to them all, especially one Princess Sally, so, she took off her own vest and started trying to tear it into strips, but the fabric was too tough.

With many pleading eyes looking to him, Antoine sighed before tearing a suitable piece from his own beloved deep blue jacket. Considering the coyote's typical temperament over his belongings, everyone was truly grateful and proud of him in this serious moment, causing the aforementioned to blush slightly from embarrassment.

As the jacket rag soaked up with youthful blood, Bunnie began explaining where they'd gone and just what had gone wrong.

"It was an accident, Sally… We thought that living rock-pile had been put outta commission and then in one second he grabbed Tails and then he was… he was…" Bunnie, ever the strong woman, choked up after that. She had good faith that Tails would recover quickly, but the sting of what ifs would surely haunt her for awhile longer. Goodness knows she was used to those…

"Well you should've checked harder! Then he would still be well and without possible scarring!" Sally lashed out, before hiding the tears of her eyes in Sonic's chest. He'd been the nearest [and most willingly] subject, since Knuckles was hardly one for such physical contact after all.

Bunnie flinched; despite knowing that deep down her girl friend was only letting off needed emotional steam. The next few minutes were tense after that, and when Sonic the Hedgehog was gravely silent for minutes on end, anyone who knew him knew that something was seriously up.

"Ugh…" a groggy, but coherent groan eventually came from one Tails Miles Prower. Everyone gathered around him in haste, ready to steady him should he try to get up, or calm him down should he awaken in agony. Neither came to pass.

"… Guys?" he slowly drawled out, as his azure blues refocused once more. "What are you doing here? And where are we now? Did you see where Miss Tikal went?" Tails continued, subtly shaking his small head from side to side. Or maybe that was just him trembling, it was the stuff of nightmares being injured and incapable of movement [for the time being].

Knuckles felt an eerie stirring within himself on that last sentence, as though a puzzle piece had just been put in place. Bubbles of anticipation, for something he didn't even know what, was coursing from him. Something was about to happen, and so he was about to ask the young fox more about this 'Tikal' when…

"Aunt Bunnie?"

"Hey, sugar." Bunnie knelt beside Tails. "This ain't exactly how I pictured this here mission to turn out. Guess I got you into a real pickle, huh?"

"It wasn't your fault. I just held onto this thing like crazy," he said, pointing with his yes to the yellow emerald. "-and hoped for the best."

"And it iz worked very well, well, aside from tze accident, of course," Antoine interjected quietly.

"Like you said, it was a freak accident Aunt Bunnie. I just wanted to apologise," Tails said, his gaze fixed to the ground.

"What the hoo-hah do you got to apologise for, pumpkin?"

"For not waiting for you and Antoine's help in getting the emerald and not running away fast enough, I got you into trouble with Aunt Sally. I'm sorry."

There was a catch in Bunnie's voice as she said, "Now you listen here, sugar, an' you listen good: you ain't got _nuthin'_ to apologise for. This weren't nobody's fault. I'm all right, an' you're gonna be fine." Her smile was still thin.

* * *

The tension in the air made a quick retreat after that, as Sally stepped out of her clammed-up state and apologised to her best girl friend. And with that, the vacuum that usually sank all other conversations was lifted, and so Knuckles finally stepped forward, awkwardly sitting down next to the fox cub, much to everyone's surprise.

With his purple eyes fixed on his azure own Tails couldn't help but feel nervous. He liked the guy, but his temper sure wasn't a nice thing to face, from what he'd seen from Knuckles and Sonic's squabbles over the last year or two anyway.

"Tails… You mentioned seeing a girl called 'Tikal'? I don't know why but I feel as though I _need_ to know more about her-" The guardian began slowly, his tone filled with confusion and something abit like hope, which in turn jogged Tails' own memory.

"Oh yeah! She was one of them, an echidna like you. There were loads of them!" He said excitedly, sliding over one important point, _where_.

Knuckles heart skipped a beat, well; actually it skipped a dozen of them, and then began to scour. Finally he'd be able to reunite with his long lost people from the stars! Oh what questions he had, so many questions…

Sadly, the new world that was quickly assembling itself in the Guardian's mind was about to halted in its construction.

"Umm, but I think it may have just been a dream…" Tails began slowly and sadly, knowing that the true smile on Knuckles' face would vanish upon these words being spoken. And as he thought, it did falter, but only slightly. "I don't know where or when I was but I-"

"Wait…" Knuckles interjected thoughtfully. "Were you near an ancient temple with jungle foliage and burning pots around you, and with no sound at all but certain people speaking, like 'Miss Tikal'?"

"Y-yes, how did you know?" Tails asked inquisitively, only to be cut short by a witness to the current proceedings.

"Erm, sorry to budge in lads, but am I the only one who has _no idea_ what's going on?" Sonic interjected with a look of confusion plain on his face.

"Non, non, for once tze hedgehog and me agree," Antoine said, whilst Bunnie, Sally and especially Rotor held thoughtful looks.

"Well…" Tails began. "When I lost consciousness, I woke up somewhere else. I thought I was in some kind of heaven." Sally gasped quietly before guilty feelings churned away in her stomach once more. No one so young should have to face such thoughts. "I was surrounded by the stuff that Knuckles said and there was no sound. Except for one person-"

"Miss Tikal," Knuckles finished for him, in a calm manner.

"Yeah, that's right," Tails confirmed. "I heard her singing from near the temple so I went on over to see if she could help me figure out where I was and stuff. She was reciting some poem her Grandmother had taught her when I got there, about the Chaos Emeralds."

"The Chaos Emeralds?" Sally voiced thoughtfully; they had always been a big mystery to them all and any legends were either greatly hidden or non-existent. The prospect of some possible information on them wasn't only exciting her brain, but Rotor, Sonic and Knuckles too.

"Yeah, Aunt Sally, Knuckles, Sonic," the fox turned to and addressed them all in turn. "It was something like this: 'The servers are the seven Chaos Emeralds. "Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos.'"

A moment or two of contemplative silence took hold.

"But she wasn't entirely sure what it meant," Tails offered.

"Well, I'm sure this here Tikal will appear to ye or Knuckles again pumpkin," Bunnie said assured, ruffling his head hair, prompting a playful groan of complaint. "Then maybe it'll start making a strudel of sense."

"You're telling me. First this Chaos creep and now ghost poem-speaking echidnas? Talk about craziness," Sonic quipped sarcastically. "I'd rather fight Metal Sonic any day of the week."

Sally's deliberate cough prompted the core Freedom Fighters' attention. And it wasn't just that, she had her serious tactical leader face on, which meant it was time for business as usual – Robotnik trashing business that is [in Sonic's own words].

"As intrigued as we all are to this Tikal business that has been brought to our attention," the resistance-fighting Princess began, albeit somewhat offhandedly dismissing it altogether, which didn't go unnoticed by the Guardian who just frowned in response. "It has been nearly half a day now, and with the emeralds now fully collected, we need to mount an attack on the Egg Carrier and board it. Robotnik will come after us eventually so we need to strike and put an end to Chaos right now, before he causes destruction across the greater Mobius. Plus we can't afford to risk Amy's life for the Roboticizer."

Those last two thoughts, especially the last one, stung them all. The Freedom Fighters had lost many family members and friends to the dreaded device already and they were sure as heck not going to allow it to happen again! All they could was pray that they weren't already too late, but that was hopelessness for you.

"We'll go back to Tail's workshop to prepare, is that alright with everyone?"

The Princess was met with nods all round, and so they set off once more. And as the reunited group began the trek back and voiced preparatory battle plans, Knuckles was all but in quiet reclusion behind them. He was currently very frustrated with himself, for he had an inkling about the poem, he _knew_ that he knew something about it, but the memory block wasn't giving away.

But most of all he was scared. Scared of what he'd found out about himself [and his family], and scared of the possible prospect of being deemed a poor Guardian. It was an honour-bestowed title so it meant the world to him.

Fortunately for the echidna, he was good at stemming off his emotions and keeping his focus, which, he thought, was more than the cobalt hedgehog could do most of the time, so his fierce thoughts sunk into subconscious.

All Knuckles could do now was conclude his quest for the Master Emerald pieces and hope that Tikal would again visit [him] again shortly and lessen his fears. So then he could let himself soar.

* * *

**MYSTIC RUINS SKIES / 17.46 PM **

_*Play Sonic Adventure – Sky Chase*_

It'd only taken them the best part of the hour, but the Freedom Fighters had plotted course a route to the Egg Carrier, which by NICOLE and Rotor's combined know-how, was currently situated above the Emerald Sea, and ten miles across it from Square itself.

In minutes, they were off faster than Sonic could say 'Let's juice!', much to Antoine, and even Knuckles initial discomforts, the latter of whom had never been on a biplane of any kind before then.

And as the seat-fitted biplane cut through the air and ascended higher and higher, the fluffy white clouds disintegrated into swirling masses of ominous greys which dominated the lightly grey tinted skies, devoured them even. The surrounding cold snap also, was like long flurries of spectres' fingers. In short, it looked like a storm was coming, though whether it was of natural causes or by whatever Robotnik's Egg Carrier emitted was up for debate.

"Do we have it in sight yet?" Sally remanded of Bunnie and Rotor, whom were the appointed look-outs on this voyage. The aforementioned had their eyes stuck like glue into the binoculars Rotor had designed, one of their best assets being their water-proof casing, but promptly cut the Princesses hopes short. There was nothing ahead for miles, it seemed.

"Oh well," Sonic said coolly, lying back in his mid-seat. "Like its creator, it's so large that we're guaranteed

"Guaranteed, eh?" Sally said slyly. "Did the big blue hedgehog learn a new word?" She cooed playfully.

"Oh shaddup," Sonic deflected coolly. "I'm not as dumb as you think I am, ya know."

Before any retort could be made, another voice commanded Sally's attention.

"Princesse… This plan of yours iz great, simply _lovely_, but I was just thinking," Antoine timidly began, crying out over the howling winds. "Could this not be what Robotnik wants? We are bringing tze rest of the emeralds with us, non?"

Sally frowned. "Yes… It was one of the first pitfalls I thought of to this plan." She turned to face everyone else by swivelling her rather comfy red seat around. "… I'm sure you all had similar objections in mind, right?"

Everyone nodded, mild guilt spread across their faces.

The Princess was just about to gauge on why no one [bar Antoine, naturally] had brought this up, since she was their friend as much as commanding leader, when she was smoothly interrupted..

"The 'Twan does raise a good point Sal, yes," Sonic said, gesturing to everyone else as he used his rare deduction skills. "And we didn't raise this up with you earlier because despite the risk, it's the only choice we have."

Sally's mouth opening and closing like a goldfish, and rendered speechless for those next five seconds would be a treasured memory of Sonic the Hedgehog for the remainder of time.

"And it's not like we could take the emeralds back with us to Knothole anyway," Rotor interjected thoughtfully. "-since Robotnik could use their energies to locate it. It's why we used the North Cave up to…" He risked a glance at Knuckles. "-Until the emeralds were re-housed, that is". If the Guardian was at all interested [or offended] he sure didn't show it as he looked out across the skies.

"Exactly, sugahs, the risks are high, but we don't have alota choice!" Bunnie wrapped up.

Sally smiled, feeling silly for ever doubting them. "Well, let's go kick some Robotnik and Chaos butt then guys."

"Yeah!" they all exclaimed joyfully, everyone but Tails that is.

"Erm, hey Tails… we're having a moment here, do you care to _join in_?" Sonic drawled out, strained by keeping his 'fist in the air' like pose intact.

"Sorry Sonic, guys, but we have company," Tails said worriedly, pointing out across the skyline dead ahead.

"Heh, a welcoming party eh?" Sonic smirked. "Well let's go play!"

* * *

The welcoming squadron soon reached their air space, the middle ground between Station Square and the Egg Carrier, and it was then that their indentifies became crystal clear.

"Well isn't this a happy reunion," Sonic shrugged jokingly. "It looks like they missed us since we ka-POWED Robuttnik's Death Egg outta the sky."

The Badniks in question regarded of three types, the first being a large turtle with tiny silver arms, laid flat-out across a horizontal axis with two small jets parked up its backside. It also had a patterned lime green shell and sandy yellow under shell, as well as a curved beak for a mouth [and nose, not that it needed one]. The most notable thing one would notice at first sight was the smaller upright turtle on his back hanging onto a protruding handle, seemingly innocent [but not]. NICOLE had indentified it back then as a 'Turtloid', [you get it?]. [Yeah… Robotnik really had some shoddy Badnik nicknames]

Next up on the roster were a squadron of red bird jets with yellow appendages, streamlined for maximum aerodynamics. They answered to the given name 'Balkiry' and loved to beak-bomb its enemies. And then there was Nebula, a grey armoured Badnik with a yellow propeller which enabled it to hover, and who dumped spiked bombs from its bottom chute.

The only one that wasn't in the fray was the Egg Robos, but Sonic put that down to Robotnik's vanity, i.e. there is only one Robotnik and nothing else compares! Either that or maybe they ran off and formed a Brotherhood too; the thought both amused and unnerved the cerulean hedgehog – so he choose never to voice it, just in case…

"Just business as usual, eh sugah hog?" Bunnie chimed.

"You betcha, now, come and get some hedgehog spikes!" Sonic taunted the sky guard, which prompted four Balkiry's to charge at him, their thrusters as bright as fireworks behind them, and to fall directly into the hero's trap.

He jumped just as the first two zoomed past, enabling him to spin-dash the third and fourth as they caught their brethren up, and use the momentum gained to smash the returning two before landing cleanly on the biplane's wingspan.

And he wasn't the only one getting in on the action, for everyone now was tussling with a number of Badniks, who surrounded the biplane [so escape was out of the question, even if it was on the cards]. The slash and buckle of swordplay rang in the air, as Antoine, using his father's old sword, defended the back of the biplane. Sadly for him, he was still rather unpolished in the art and so was prone to mistakes.

"Take that you foul beast!" He hollered at the Nebula in front of him, getting more and more agitated as it darted around his novice-bordering moves, which in turn, you guessed it, caused him to flaunter even more. Good thing he had homemade –volatile-bomb-maker Rotor to back him up really!

And with one aforementioned bomb and throw by the walrus later the spiked-bomb-loving Badnik was totalled, spraying small debris across the plane. If he was interested at all in sports then maybe he'd of dabbled in Javelin, but Rotor wasn't, so he didn't.

Knuckles was also on the ball, using his trusty fists to decimate the horde around the cockpit from the top.

"That's another one for the team!" Bunnie hollered as her right leg smashed through the hide of a fireball-tossing Turtloid, not only destroying the Badnik's inner circuitry [cue more rain of junk] but propelling its half-intact rider sailing into the clouds below. "Me and Sally have the midsection in check," she assured.

* * *

_*Crackle, rumble, crackle, rumble*_

A streak of white flashed in and out of existence then, followed swiftly by the medium-patter of rain.

"Great," Sally grumbled as she hopped backward to avoid a Nebula's arsenal. This was bound to make things even harder, from visibility to grip ability on this small arena they had. And as this trail of thought ended, it was put to the test as another squadron of Balkiry's dived at the rebel Princess, talons outstretched.

_Damn_, Sally cursed inwardly, noting where she was; atop the left wing. _This is hardly the place for me to put my aerobatics to good use_, she frowned. _Still, maybe the time has come for a more indirect assault_, she thought, eyeing the returning jet bird with a trace of a smirk apparent on her features.

And with a graceful leap a gazelle would be envious of, the Princess jumped into the air and landed atop the crimson falcon, straddling it's midsection between her thighs as she tightly held the head still with her left arm. Its robotic squawks of protest were very audible and hurt her eardrums, so she acted quickly, using her open right arm to tear asunder the outer casing and put NICOLE inside.

The rebel was being thrown about like a rag doll now, but it was too late as the supercomputer only needed twenty odd seconds to hack into the Badnik, whose security defences were like peanuts compared to the less canon-fodder of Robotnik's forces, and program a backlash of energy [namely the ever convenient, if stupid, self-destruct protocol], as well as the command to fly into its nearest brethren.

"It's…time… for… a... family… REUNION!" she cried out, as she held on for dear life. If was a good thing Sonic was again preoccupied, or he might've given her another downing on the 'reckless' route, thankfully for her.

The Princess quickly calculated just how many seconds remained till impact, closed her eyes and began to count.

"Phew! That was a close one," Sonic said through gasping breaths, as he grabbed hold of one of the plane's wheels and holstered himself back up to more spacious spaces. The facts were these; the cerulean hedgehog had been triple-teamed, and since his comrades were dealing with their own pests, when he'd timed a jump wrong and was hit, it'd sent him careening off the aerial vessel.

_This is getting a bit too much, we're totally swarmed_, he thought rather reluctantly. _I blame the weather…_ he accused.

_Five…_ The wind ruffled her hair violently

_Four…_ and the rain made it waterlogged and heavier, so it was a good thing that it wasn't longer!

_Three…_ The sleekness skin of the jet bird had become rather slippery, and her fingers were beginning to loosen, and her legs began to slide downward.

_Two…_The deafening squawks resonated throughout her body and mind; as the robot had realised it was about to die. Perhaps Robotnik had installed some animalistic cries to unnerve them after demolishing a Badnik after all.

_One-_

"Jump Sally, JUMP!" she heard her comrade say, and so she did, off of her left hand side.

A loud roar of fury and a sudden flicker of heat on her back preceded the fiery ball which lit up the stormy evening sky. And with a small thud, her blue boots landed on the central part of the wingspan, where everyone was waiting for her.

"Golly Sally girl, that was a risky one," Bunnie noted worriedly as she enveloped her best friend in a non-crushing hug.

"True…" she breathed slowly. "But I trusted in NICOLE's abilities and my own, and if I were to fall-"

"Then I'd rescue you Aunt Sally!" Tails spoke from the cockpit, corking his head 'round, which warmed the rebel Princesses heart.

"Princesse, this iz getting to be too much – we need to break through them somehow!" Antoine offered, albeit strained in tone as he was getting rather tired.

"Noted, Antoine," Sally agreed, seeing that this was proving futile. "Tails, sweetheart, can you break through the front? A quick escape should confuse them just long enough for us to get away [_hopefully_], and off to the Egg Carrier upper decks," she deducted.

Tails, [who had set the biplane on stationary mode for their fights], and had begrudgingly refrained from joining, nodded and with a determined expression, held down both thumbs on the corresponding yellow 'fire' buttons. And in a smooth motion the fox wrestled the main control mechanism, which was dual control sticks shaped like a fork, and slammed them northbound, allowing the biplane to boost off and head, well, northbound.

As expected, the squadron that had fleetingly remained around their aerial abode pursued them, but weren't quick enough to catch up with the refined Tornado 2, and the manoeuvre confused their defensive counterparts long enough for the biplane to rocket through them and out into the open skies.

"Keep it up Tails, if we maintain this speed then we'll be able to lose these guys and make it to the Egg Carrier in t-minus two and a half minutes," Rotor enthusiastically read off his calculations, in an act of reassurance for his new pupil-in-training.

Then the Badniks speeded up…

* * *

Everyone was as confused as Sonic was when the squadron, what remained of it, caught up with them in record-breaking time and then rocketed _past_ them, disappearing back into the top half of the Egg Carrier.

"Well, that was, unexpected…" a shocked Sonic summed up, echoing everyone's thoughts.

"What a bunch of cowards… you hear me foul beasts, COWARDS!" Antoine, rather pointlessly, shouted into the howling winds, almost falling out of his seat. The blue hedgehog mumbled something inaudible at that, as well as the Guardian [but his was more of an annoyed growl, so the meaning was clear].

"This must be some kind of plot to keep us on our toes and all that malarkey, eh Sally girl?" Bunnie pressed, her eyes glistening with an expectant expression.

"That would make sense," Tails began in response, before he was cut off.

"**Mon dieu!**" Antoine screamed [and jumped] as he first clapped eyes on what had come out of the Egg Carrier's underside, landing right into Bunnie's arms, surprising her and almost succeeding in toppling them both out of the biplane. Thankfully, they didn't, though.

Unfortunately, the monstrosity ahead of them made them all want to echo Antoine's former statement.

It was one of the most gigantic robots they'd ever seen, plus it was of draconian design, which was never a good factor. And even worse it had _two_ heads, one in the centre of its body and its other attached to the long coiling neck protruding from the top of its body; both with glowing yellow spheres for eyes, black and white stripes across the face and a single, triangular red spear at its most northern tip. And, of course, a shiny set of razor-sharp metallic teeth.

It had two wings; the lookalike veins and edges peppered with a dull white colour, contrasting it heavily with its main coat of paint, which was a scaly crimson. And these wings must've been anywhere from twenty to thirty feet in width [at least] and that again in height].

Lastly, it had two coiled arms protruding from its back, embodying the same design as its head, albeit in sphere form. Large pincers lay at the end of them, with sloppier stripe work, a more curved horn at its peak and a tunnel of black recess within, which surely held the offensive manoeuvres this wannabe-dragon had.

It was both terrifying and yet confusing to look at, as thought it wasn't meant to be there at all…

"NICOLE, can you gleam anything from its databanks?" Sally

"… _Scanning Sally… Extracting…,_"NICOLE bleeped, before vocalising her findings: "_Designated name is GOLAH Dragon._"

"And..?" Sally pressed hopefully.

"_That is all I can get from it, I'm sorry Princess,_" the supercomputer apologised.

"Robotnik really stepped up the defences on this one, didn't he?" Knuckles spoke for the first time, stepping forward to get a closer look at the draconian obstacle in his and their way.

"Either that," Rotor said thoughtfully, "or he made sure that there was nothing else at all worth seeing within, no battle strategies, no weaknesses, just its serial name."

"Then it's just a fall guy then, a bigger cannon fodder," Sally interjected, in a cold tone aimed Golah's way, who was still flapping about aimlessly. "-and we can deal with that, right guys?"

"Yeah!" they all exclaimed, with Sonic chiming in an 'any day of the week' line too.

"You better hold on to your seats guys," Tails loudly announced. "-because I'm shifting the Tornado 2 into its aerial fighting mode!"

"Aerial… fighting… mode?" Antoine repeated, mildly confused.

"You'll see," Tails said evenly, a trace mischievous smile on his face, "- now, grab on to something! You don't want to fall out of the plane, do you?"

"Oh, non!" Non! NON!" Antoine wept, frantically tightening himself around the first thing he could reach, which, in this case was one southern belle…

Then, the transformation began.

Firstly, a smooth silvery hook came out of the biplane's side and nabbed poor Antoine by his arm cuffs, carting him back into his seat at the back. Bunnie was glad, though, for the Frenchman kinda reeked at the moment – presumably of fear-induced sweat mixed with rain. [_Eww…_] Then the four wings folded up into angled slots, forming an X shape, and the back of the plane rose up a notch.

In the cockpit, everything remained the same, except for the 3 gathered Chaos Emeralds, which were now beginning to glimmer mildly.

Knuckles was about to ask as to why, fearful that they might be unstable and dangerous [moreso than they were by their very nature], when a ferocious roar came through the thunderous rain.

The sudden whirring noises and powering up weaponry seemed to have give it a bad case of feral red [like with certain parrots types who see the colour red as a sign of aggression], as it slammed its wings against the air and dipped out of the sky, heading straight for them – finally dropping down about two to three hundred feet away, flapping majestically in the chaotic calamity of weather.

It didn't last for long, though, as Golah charged at them, its prickly wings out front.

An evasion command wasn't needed for the young fox engineer, who within seconds had cart-wheeled the plane out of harm's way. Though, it left some dizzy heads onboard.

"Ugh… Can we not do that again so soon, champ," Sonic pleaded, pressing his right hand on his forehead.

"Sure, Sonic," Tails replied apologetically, as he fumbled about with his controls. "Now it's time for a counterattack of our own," he said sternly, near-pressing the two cannon fire buttons with his thumbs.

"Incoming from the north east!" Sally remanded to her young nephew, who nodded and power boosted the Tornado 2 in that direction, uploading the first batch [of some eighteen ammo packs installed] at the metallic dragon.

The dazzling pellets of orange light sprayed across the heavens, slicing through the rain and anything else it came across, anything that is except for the Golah dragon, whose stomach barely had a scratch to show for it.

Tails frowned. "Well that didn't go as well as I'd hoped…"

* * *

As Sally and the others consoled the young prodigy, Knuckles had calmed himself into a meditative state once more, trying desperately to call out to the last fragments of the Master Emerald that he needed. Now, one may think of this as selfish, maybe even heartless, considering the group's current situation, but considering his lack of knowledge on non-Floating Island technology and the young fox's renowned abilities, he didn't feel much worry, yet alone needed, so he'd decided to get on with his own matters of importance.

The bustling world had been drained of sound and visuals, as the guardian centred his focus on his mind, and the lifelong thread that'd connected him to the Master Emerald. He'd so far acquired the other pieces by seeking out this thread and the vibrations the shattered entities gave out, vibrations that cried out to be whole once more, and who was the guardian of it to refuse?

Unlike back down on the planet, however, the vast absence of life [particularly the sentient kind], allowed him to spread his mind further and easier than ever before. He strongly bound his hold to the physical world, however, as for the longest time he'd feared that spreading his mind too thin could be catastrophic, and thus, he was especially wary during long sessions like this [of which he'd done many].

Rendering one's self unconscious for hours, if not days, being the least worrisome of the possibilities, the other permanent result was. And this result was none other than splintering your mind across the world [or the universe, if it was a very extreme mediation ceremony], leaving body as an empty husk, and for Knuckles, leaving the Master Emerald unguarded for the remainder of time – since he highly doubted he had the ability to become 'one' with the universe should such an event fall upon him.

Some elapse of time later and the mist began to recede to reveal the world in a truer form than the one people see, as wisps of fleetingly energy swirled around in the clouds nearby, probably from the jet engines of the Egg Carrier.

His mind seemed to have entered a free-flowing stream of thought as rapid and unceasing as a great river. One by one, he examined his comrades, whom, due to level of creation he was on, were bodies of coloured light. Mainly a yellowish orange, but with traces of reds, pinks, greens and bluish purples as well – he didn't know what any of it meant, but it was fascinating to look at [and the Freedom Fighters were too busy fighting Golah to notice his staring]. It made Knuckles wonder what conversion would be like from here from down there, would it be any different, or more illuminating?

Suddenly, three pulsing pillars of light 'pinged' into spiritual realisation [which sounded a bit like window chimes], and displaced somewhat the guardian's former fears at 'losing himself'.

But where were they coming from, Knuckles pondered, and so he expanded his consciousness even further.

The Egg Carrier came into full view, and with it came three visual close-ups of the emerald fragments on board, all within an inside area marked 'Sky Deck'.

His vision, without warning, went a fiery crimson and hazed over, jolting him to come back to his senses and to begin recompiling his scattered mind. And a near minute later, he had done so and upon reawakening, was just in time to see the end of Golah's passing, which had revealed his offensive pincers to contain none other than, what else? Flamethrowers!

Had this been any other day, he might have been impressed, but on this day the guardian called Knuckles had just been given his sign, and now he wanted out.

"Can you hurry up and defeat this thing; I need to get to the Egg Carrier. Now!" he demanded with his arms folded across his chest, his red-hot temper slowly seething through his tone.

"Don't have a cow Knucklehead, we've been making headway since you dozed off" Sonic taunted jokingly, looking his way for a sum of about five seconds before turning back around and praising his 'champ' in the driver's seat, whom, as per Sonic's statement, had made a number of heavy scratches up and down the dragon's body. Needless to say, bar not understanding how he could _have_ a cow and seeing their efforts were futile, the apparent lack of respect for him by now had grated his last nerve.

"What's the matter with you people? The Egg Carrier. Robotnik. The rest of the Chaos Emeralds and MY Master Emerald fragments. THEY'RE RIGHT THERE!" Knuckles exploded, stabbing his finger in the Egg Carrier's direction.

"Knuckles, man… If you haven't noticed there's a big hunk of _metal dragon_ standing in our way," Sonic

"Then fly around it then! This hunk of scrap is surely more mobile than that," Knuckles spat back, his eyes lit up like a newborn blaze and ready to tear asunder anything in its path. Tails gasped, saddened and shocked at his craftsmanship being insulted when he'd worked so hard on it… Sally was shocked too, but opted to merely openly glare at the guardian than to scream at him now, especially considering Golah was still active.

And to make that thought an ever plausible reality; the aforementioned outstretched its twin heads and let loose its fire power, singeing the starboard [right] pair of wings quite badly.

"And YOU!" he accused at the dragon who didn't even have a programmed voice to reply with. "Go crawl back to your monstrous creator and let US do what we need to do!"

"Knuckles, I think it may be best if you calm down," Antoine stated lamely, timidly [or rather, more stupidly] grabbing the crimson echidna's right arm from the skies. Knuckles punched him lightly in the stomach to wind him and somersaulted cleanly to the tops of the wings above. "Don't you _dare_ touch me, and anyway, who asked you Mr 'I Speak Funny'!" This caused Antoine to whimper with fear, and then glower with anger at a certain cerulean hedgehog when Knuckles went on to say that it wasn't him who'd first voiced it.

And don't you dare hurt him, you bully!" Bunnie scowled at him, as she and Rotor inspected Antoine for any underlying damage or discomfort.

"Knuckles, that's _**enough**_," Princess Sally said sternly, projecting her voice and overall anger-filled tone more than shouting probably would at the towering guardian.

"You are a Freedom Fighter," she began, he scoffed.

"You _agreed_ to be one, now act like one!" she continued, ignoring his last remark.

"You all goaded me into one!" Knuckles accused. "I said thanks for helping me with getting Robotnik off of my island, but you wouldn't keep away like I asked you to."

"Err, and neither did Robotnik, pal," Sonic interjected, clearly pissed off at the redhead's ungrateful-sounding attitude. "We've helped you time and time again, we didn't have to, but we did – why can't you see that just want the best for you man!"

That silenced him. Or in all actually, it made him whisper out in a deep, airy tone, one embalmed with frustrated sadness.

"If I don't know what I'm meant to do, then how can you?"

"Knuckles…" Tails began quickly [he was still piloting, after all], "Please, stay. Help us! We need you."

"Sorry little, 'champ', was it?" Knuckles said a little dumbfoundly, looking to Sonic for confirmation. He nodded. "But my guardian duties come before being a Freedom Fighter. It's something I need to follow through to the end."

"Does it come even before friends?" the young fox said with but a hopeless whisper.

Knuckles had no answer to that. Not yet.

And to avoid the prolonged awkward silence that now gripped the emotionally high crew, the echidna dove off the edge and into the storm, the wind coursing between his dreadlocks and allowing his means of 'flight', as he glided towards the menacing airship with a moustached emblem.

Surprising them all, Golah paid the guardian no heed at all as he sailed past him. Though, whether it was down to it not thinking him a pest worth dealing with or due to bad eyesight [and in such a blusterous storm, it was possible, though still quite unlikely], Knuckles didn't care, not that now his quest was finally winding to its inevitable conclusion.

He'd apologise to his comrades… friends[?]… later.

* * *

"Do you think he'll be alright, Sonic?" Tails asked, breaking the soundless void, after the guardian disappear from view somewhere over the Egg Carrier's top deck.

"Hey, he's Knuckles the Echidna, fist-fighter extraordinaire, he'll be fine, no sweat," was the cool hedgehog's reply. "Now, what do you say we nail this oversized clunker?" Sonic asked of his little fox friend, giving him the wink.

"Roger that, hang on guys! The Chaos Emeralds are ready now," Tails said excitedly, fumbling with various buttons on his pilot dashboard, namely the smaller ones.

"Ready? Ready for wha-" Rotor began, visibly confused. "OH, I see now, you've been charging the Chaos Emeralds we've acquired so they could be used as offensive means, correct?"

"Bingo, Rotor," Tails confirmed, gesturing with his left thumb to the emeralds, which were now glowing strong silvers, yellows and greens respectively.

"Now we just need to get into a good enough position to blast old whatchamacallit," Bunnie said, all piped up as she looked at the dragon in question, who was circling now them, waiting for an opportune moment – his.

"I'll keep watch with the binoculars," Sally offered, knowing that NICOLE wouldn't be fast enough to track him accurately; he looked like a shoddy concoction, but he boasted a decent aerial speed. "Then, all you have to do is concentrate on firing the… What's it called?" the Princess asked teasingly fun, letting her professional mask of demeanour slip for some thirty seconds.

"I dunno actually, Aunt Sally," Tails confessed dumbfoundly. "My first thought was the 'Emerald Blast!', but that sounded kinda cheesy."

"_Way_ cheese, lil bro," Sonic commented.

Tails giggled in approval. "So why not the 'Tornado Cannon'?" he mused.

"Hmmm," his 'aunt' thought. "Well, I guess so. I know I can't think of anything else-"

"SONIC BOOM!" Sonic exclaimed, causing everyone to look at him weirdly and wonder if his sugah levels were too high again.

"Err, no," Tails said flatly, rejecting it outright. "So, the Tornado Cannon it is then," he said, a mild hint of disappointment in his voice.

"Let's do it to it guys!" Sonic said eagerly.

"I think tze weather has confuzzled his brain," Antoine sneered, leaving his last sentence a mere whisper. "Not that he had much of one anyway…"

The winged titan lunged at them once more, blazing pincers burning, and narrowly missing its targets when Tails arced to its right side. And for all the good he knew it would do, he let loose some of the dwindling explosive pellets as a distracting point, hoping, that with some extra bought time, that Sally could calculate a good trajectory angle to fire the emerald-powered at.

The Princesses mind whirred as she scrutinised the body of the dragon, their current height and what angle would deal a perfect ace with the cannon. Unfortunately, this pass over wouldn't be that time, as Golah, whose hide was rather blackened by now, twirled around and out of close range.

"Sorry," she said sincerely to her adopted nephew, before going back to her binoculars and calculating.

"It's alright, Sally, in fact… I think I have an idea," the young prodigy said thoughtfully. "But it'd be a risky one. And you'd have to hang on _real_ tight to your seats."

"Yeah, that means no coshing up with Bunnie, 'Twan," Sonic smirked, causing Antoine to fret his innocence and for Bunnie to go oddly quiet, if not look abit peachy in the cheeks area… Not that Sonic noticed, that is.

"Go for it hun, we believe in yah," Bunnie praised.

"Okay, then… let's…GO!" Tails shouted out, boasting the Tornado 2 straight at the stationary Golah, who then started to flap in the other direction.

"Oh no you don't," Tails muttered, "I'm staying with you all the way buddy."

And true to his word, that's exactly what the fox did as he caught up with the metal dragon and then kept close [but not too close] and started circling him, catching Golah off guard.

It didn't last for long though, however, as it soon started to thrust his pincer arms, now sans flames, at them – but the young pilot danced around them with ease. Despite the danger they'd been in, Tails would, in a few days time, recall this moment as an exhilarating and exciting one.

"So now what, lil bro?" Sonic asked, intrigued as to the plan.

"We go up," Tails replied simply, before the Tornado 2 became a blur of twists and turns once more, now on an ascending voyage.

Golah, literally began to turn up the heat as he bought his trusty firearms back into play, but the Freedom Fighters [sans Tails] had a surprise of their own to spring...

For you see, Rotor still had four bomb pouches left… and so, in another daring move, Tails brought the biplane closer to the beast [whilst still avoiding the fire streams of doom], allowing he and his friends to strike lucky.

Four penetrating bombs flashes erupted from Golah's lower torso to just under his neck area [Sonic had just frustratingly missed the neckline] and Tails had used the last of the normal ammo, which caused the Badnik to halt his movement and roar in defiance as its vision became impaired.

"Now's our chance," Sally swiftly said, exchanging glances with her adopted nephew. "Now, you see the crest spike jolting out of his head," she pointed out. "Aim for it and the whole head structure will crumble."

"Right," Tails said, manoeuvring the biplane in an ascending air, so they were towering right over the colossal Badnik, whose roars of confusion and anger continued, as it swiped violently at the smoke cloud that enveloped its upper half.

This was it, and so with one last button combination, Tails aimed the plane and cannon at the head crest and pressed the fire mechanism.

"Tornado Cannon… FIRE!"

A thick stream of silvery, green and yellow light exploded out of the cannon, so fast and so furiously, that it was a wonder the plane wasn't ripped apart in the process! And it was this width and prowess that saw it slice right through Golah's head, before it went out with a pulsing boom and the body began to crumble before their eyes as it made short work of its inner circuitry.

Seconds later [they couldn't recall how long, as it'd all happened so abruptly], and what remained of the body plummeted towards and through the clouds below, like a falling meteor into the ocean below. The Freedom Fighters hoped it wouldn't cause too much distress to the underwater area, as fickle a hope was to hold in that regard. But Sally kept a mental note that they should at least tell the Station Square President about it when they got back.

* * *

Ominously, the rain then stopped [or was this just the first time they'd noticed and it'd eased off sometime before?] and then a low humming sound became apparent. Sonic [ever the wise cracker] likened it to a microwave cooking a cheese burger or two.

Sadly, the reality was much more horrifying as the humming turned into a crackling noise.

"Oh Freedom Fighters…" a familiar, icy voice sounded, prompting them to all twist around in their seats at its source, namely, the Egg Carrier, which had opened up to reveal… a massive bluish-green cannon. And it was all charged up?!

"Prepare to meet your makers!"

Whatever he said next was, for the most part lost on them [although it sounded akin to 'I'll pry the emeralds from your char-grilled fingertips'], as a gigantic humming beam of white screamed across the distance, reaching them swiftly [so fast that a Sonic wisecrack or Antoine screaming 'Mon dieu!' could not be done in time].

It incinerated the top wings, which the gang narrowly escaped by ducking as far down in their seats as they could, before it lastly caught the back engine, setting it on fire.

THEN the screaming began, except it was everyone, as the biplane spiralled out of control towards the Egg Carrier. It was so bad, that they truly couldn't tell whether the deafening shuddering was from the falling apart vessel, or from their very bones.

Whichever it was, it wasn't to matter for much longer as the trauma caused Sonic and co to black out, leaving the ruined Tornado 2 to crash on board the top deck of the Egg Carrier vessel and explode.

* * *

XXXXX

**Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream**

XXXXX

* * *

And thus ends the seventieth chapter of this story arc!

* * *

Sorry for the long[ish] delay between this one and the last, I just kept putting it off. So yes, they're _finally_ at the Egg Carrier and now the endgame has truly began! I still need to improve my battle scenes, yes I know.

The dragon, Golah, is actually from the beta of Sonic Adventure. He was gonna be the boss of Sky Chase [though, which act escapes me]! Pretty cool, eh?

More information on that, as well as a video, can be found at SOST . EMULATIONZONE . ORG [without the spaces and caps, obviously].

I'm pretty sure the idea for a 'Tornado Cannon' came from the Skies of Arcadia game, but don't quote me on that. Lol.

The Knuckles mediation part was fun to write [as well as the angry fallout that followed], I had originally written far more on his spiritual 'ascension' but I cut it out; so as to not reiterate too much material in future arcs.

Finally, on a random note, this actually ended up as 17 pages in my Word. xD

* * *

I hope you enjoyed this, and the chapters so far, any comments or ratings would be nice and appreciated! ^-^

'**The Last Voyage Of The Egg Carrier****' is the next chapter.**

Take care ya'll ***smiley face***


	20. The Last Voyage Of The Egg Carrier

**Disclaimer**: _I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "**Change The World**" by ARTIST Dream

* * *

**CHAPTER 18: The Last Voyage Of The Egg Carrier**

[_KNUCKLES POV_]

There was the more interesting, if almost _fun_ times fighting the good fight with the Freedom Fighters, and then there was simply the days that drawled on and on… Days I'd rather of spent mediating.

* * *

_*Play Sonic Adventure - Sky Deck A Go Go*_

"Oh no you don't!" I'd howled, having heard it creeping closer to my back [good hearing is a guardian necessity, naturally], and so I'd let rip an uppercut and outstretched kick at the hovering bat robot, who'd been about to fly into me and zap me with its thunderous prowess.

And from its charred remains, something that still mildly confused me, the 'biological battery' as everyone deemed it, in this case a small icy white & blue Penguin, hopped happily [and unscathed] out and off to the nearby [presumed] exit. I'd quickly wished it good luck under my breath before twisting back to face and eliminate the last defense guard for the remaining emerald shard.

As to how I'd got to this point, I couldn't accurately tell you how long I'd been in here [since I use the passing sun to work that out], but I can't have been on this damned 'Sky Deck' for more than an hour, and like with everything Robotnik related, it either angered, annoyed or confused me – and this place was doing a perfect job of all three!

I mean for first's sake, I had been met with the dullest browns, greys, reds and blues I'd seen in my life [even worse than the Death Egg, and at least that was lit up all fancy like inside]. It kept the same smooth metallic floors, though, and it smelt of oil, smoke and general industrial garbage, it made me want to gag and plug my nose up.

_Not that anything here is going up my nose, no matter how bad this gets_, I'd thought.

The belly of the airship, though, was made up of various platforms, some painted with black and yellow stripes at their edges and some not. Crimson spherical constructs lay in the tiled ground also, looking fairly harmless; that was until I went near one and it started firing small fiery pellets at me [Damn that Robotnik]… Yellow tinted ladders, silver coated doors [with various painted numbers atop them], spiralling cranes, spinning chained spiked balls and a red covered corridor [starting from the bottom and curving to the top level] also caught my eye as I glided to and fro, following my acute senses.

But of course, it wouldn't be much of a mad scientist's warship without some sort of defense guard, so there was some Badniks too – namely, a bat robot with thunderous powers, a pink and yellow spiky caterpillar and a spherical ball with eyes, surrounded by spiky balls. I didn't know any of their names, and to be honest I didn't care, all I knew is that they were the enemy, and that destroying them smoothly not only got rid of another Robotnik foot soldier, but that it freed whatever Mobian had been forced inside to 'biologically run' the thing. Not a bad thing by any means.

All in all, typical Robotnik flair oozed out from every crevice, like a disease, but there was something else too. Namely, whoever was changing the angles of the deck every minute was really getting on my last nerves – If I ever caught up with them then I'd pound their heads in like squashed strawberries!

* * *

The first emerald shard had been behind one of the aforementioned silver doors down on the lowest side of this deck, which had seemed simple enough. Too simple actually, so, I'd glided to a nearby wall and knuckled myself in [by means of putting my arms straight behind me] and placed my feet firmly against the wall. Then sat back and observed.

It remained steadfast closed for a seemingly long period after that, and I'd almost tossed this patience-testing plan to the winds and gone down to smash the door in myself, when it suddenly opened up like a hatch and at a hideously dangerous speed, tossed out a dark grey rimmed barrel.

_That could've slammed right into me_, was one of the first thoughts that'd entered my mind, well, other than, _just why was Robotnik letting cargo be flung around down here?_

The fact that it could've been a testing area or the like didn't cross my mind till later, once I'd met up with the others and exchanged Egg Carrier experiences, all charmingly _lovely_, of course.

But anyway, to cut this a bit short, right after that I'd waited for the opening moment once more [begrudgingly] and swooped right on in thereafter. And to no surprise, a gleaming shard of heavenly green was my reward.

And after I'd found this first shard, a sudden rumbling had coursed over the belly of the Egg Carrier, which had been weird as nothing around me seemed to had changed. _Perhaps the others had finally beaten that dragon?_ I'd thought.

_But that'd mean they were here, and we'll run into each other sooner or later… _I'd thought, mildly uncomfortable at the thought. _I said a lot in the heat of the moment, but, I hope they can forgive me. I'll help you deal with Chaos when the time comes, I promise! _

And with that silent vow done, I'd gone onto finding the second shard.

In one of the small chit-chat's I'd had whilst staying for awhile at the Freedom Fighter's base after the Death Egg incident, I recall Amy and Antoine discussing heights and how many folk had a phobia of them, something they told me then, meant that it scared them, some very badly so. And some of those poor souls could end up snapping mentally and taking their lives if pushed into it. I was never to have that problem due to my natural abilities and the terrain [and location] of my home land [not that I'd ever come down to Mobius before Robotnik came mind you].

So, luckily for me, spotting a tiny sparkling dot of forest green atop the central crane in the area was like a walk in the park, well in my case, one devoid of human children at least…

And it had been, even the spiky ball robot couldn't stop my beat, but I took care of it anyway [by flinging a loose barrel at it], resulting in another captive freed, a small fawn.

* * *

That'd been easy, but where I was now, it was proving to be rather trickier [not that these Badniks were any harder to beat, but their numbers were a little overwhelming].

I was smashing my fist in the face of a bat robot when the caterpillars would use that as a sign to crawl up my legs, their small spikes cutting into my skin as they did so, but I refused to howl, even to them. I had more stamina and reliance than that!

So then I grabbed two of them by the head and threw them at the nearest spiky ball, resulting in an explosive mess of parts, before dealing the same fate to the last remaining one [who'd been about to chomp at my chest].

_Damn metal monsters_, I cursed within myself, lying on the floor and clutching my right leg, which had just given out momentarily. _Reducing me to this – how pathetic of me…_

The last bunch, of three bats, two spike balls and three caterpillars, had surrounded me by that point. And my emerald sense was going wilder than ever before.

_Could it be_, I wondered, _that the final shard is within one of them?!_

There was only one way to find out, I reasoned, pushing the leg aches to the furthest corners of my self-conscious and standing up, assuming a fighter's stance.

Instead of attacking me individually this time, as they had before, they went with a group mentally [or stupidity, as I saw it here] and all charged at me, no sense to their movements at all. Robotnik may have been able to make hundreds of these things every day, but they were so easy to break and of little intelligence that they were really of no use as a defense guard to me. The fact they'd overwhelmed me for _just a second_ seconds ago was shot immediately to the far recesses of my consciousness…

And so with a coordinated back-flip, I landed behind them and quickly began throwing my fists at them, twirling around as I did so like a twister. They didn't stand a chance. And so with a few more Mobians freed [of land and sea faring types], the last emerald shard came flying out of the very last robot [a bat], which I promptly caught in my left hand.

"Finally, I've found all the missing pieces," I breathed, smiling thankfully as I put it with the others in my makeshift necklace. "But I still can't figure out that water monster and why he bothers me so much…" I said, my eyes narrowed in thought. "At least I can restore the Master Emerald now."

A flurry of pink sparkles flew elegantly into my line of vision, and my primitive instincts naturally reacted on autopilot, causing me to whirl around and call out:

"Huh, what's that?"

Upon realisation, my thoughts of Chaos [or a sneak attack] evaporated.

"Oh, it's you! _Tikal_," I said happily to the sphere as I held it in my palm, acknowledging her by her name for the first time [thanks to Tails' earlier explanations]. And so, unlike the prior occasion, I gladly let her cloud my vision with multiple strands of white and take me back there.

I just had to find out where and when, _there_, was.

* * *

The light was comforting, and considering I'd let it take me without hassle, I felt more of the journey this time around. It was like lounging back on the surface of a clear river, the air abundant, cool and crisp, and slowly sailing down it to wherever it ended.

My mind felt akin to a polished mirror, so clear and relaxed, that I didn't realise that the world had reformed around me once more for about half a minute. But when I did, my ears were met with some kind of rushing water [it was rather hissy a sound] and my eyes with somewhere new. And yet, it had that nagging familiarity about it…

Enveloped in twilight hues up ahead a small stone shrine lay, which was surrounded by a full moat of water, constructed in a two tiered formation. Thin stone walls with empty spaces partway down them surrounded the shrine, and whilst it was obviously an ancient place – it didn't look as untouched as it should've been. Something was wrong, _very wrong_ here. So I raced on ahead.

And any clear reason to dispel that thought went soaring out of the Hydro City windows when I reached the outskirts of the shrine, as I saw a figure ahead – causing me to stop in my tracks.

* * *

_*Play Sonic Adventure – Tikal's Theme*_

Even with the scene a flurry of fiery hues, there was no mistaking who it was laying on the ground in a clump, and hurt.

"Tikal! What happened?" I cried out worriedly, slightly shaking her to try and revive her.

Thankfully, it seemed to do the job I'd expected of it, and she slowly stirred before I had to resort to… other measures.

"I… couldn't stop them," she spoke glumly, but still with a degree of haste. ""They came… and my father…"

And as she explained the situation, it allowed me to take in her voice [and her] more than I had been able to before; it was unshockingly a blend of sorrow and shock, but, even so, it still kept her kind tone, which seemed like a natural piece to her being. And more bizarrely still, it was even _more_ than that to me right now, at this very second, for it also sounded like a breathy sigh like the ephemeral mist rising from the base of a waterfall… *_Ahem_* In short, it was very light and airy as well.

Then it came, the first moment that my presence was fully noticed, as she looked up at me, taking me in. Her eyes widened, and they were filled with an unknown clarity; I couldn't tell whether it was from shock or something else, mainly because I'd let out a small gasp in this fleeting moment of meeting. And I had no idea why.

_That seems to be the case more and more these days_, I figured, letting the notion lay for now.

"I had no idea… how bad this would turn out!" she shouted incredulously to the heavens, as though speaking to someone but me. But who was I to pry?

Suddenly, a loud roar sounded in the near-distance [but I was still too caught up with Tikal to look for its source], but I did know this… it sent recoiling shivers through my body [and nothing genuinely scares me much], was simply _unnatural_ and above all, it was angry.

"I'm shocked," she continued, blissfully unaware of the primal scream. _Or was she? _My inner consciousness voiced. I was about to ask her about just that when she scrambled quickly up to her full height [which was slightly shorter than myself], clutching her left arm, which was bleeding profusely. I scowled at I cursed just who would do such a thing to a nice defenceless girl, as I let my eyes wander again. They immediately went to the shrine.

I mentally slapped myself – why had I not seen it before? The 'twilight hues' were obviously tendrils of flames – the shrine was on fire! And not only that, but even the darkened water was which was unsettlingly unnatural to me.

But as most shrines house something of utmost importance I continued to look around, and my eyes [naturally] gravitated up the small set of stairs, and were forced to do a double take. For in the shrine's inner sanctum there was a dark green crystal, cut into a diamond-like shape, and one of very unforgettable meaning to me…

"The **Master Emerald!** What's it doing here, Tikal…?" I voiced to the girl by my side.

Or to be more precise, the girl that _had_ just been there, for Tikal was now rushing up the shrine's staircase, her green dress disappearing into the hazy fires behind her.

"Tikal, _wait!_ I need to ask you-" I pleaded desperately, having a sense of what was about to happen next. And when the curtains of white suddenly draped over me, as always light as a feather, I knew I was right – I was leaving this time and place, and sadly I let it. The roaring flames died down and within the space of thirty seconds I heard the world hum back into existence [for I still had my eyes closed], before I then opened the aforementioned and let colours take form.

* * *

I was exactly where I'd been before, at the end of the Sky Deck, but there was something different about it this time, for there was a large luminous green web over the top of it.

_Was it to keep something out, or something in…?_ I wondered, tilting my head in mild fascination at it, before remembering what I'd seen at the shrine. I needed to be sure…

"Tails was right, this can't be a dream," I said affirmatively upon inspecting that all the emerald shards were still around my neck.

_It's certainly not a nightmare, yet._ I thought, though the trip bothered me greatly still, _why was the shrine on fire and what had the Master Emerald been doing there? And did Tikal heal from her wounds? _

"So much of this still doesn't make sense… It seems like it's the present, but it's also the past [_it has to be_], so it's… both?" I voiced thoughtfully my conclusion to no one but me and the open air.

And so when I heard a commotion to the south of my location, I kicked off the nearby walls and glided to it, since maybe, just _maybe_, this would prove to be my ticket out of this place.

Then I could help the others defeat Chaos once and for all.

[END _KNUCKLES POV_]

* * *

**EGG CARRIER / SKY DECK / 19:05 PM**

"Sally, I think there may be too many of them," Rotor stated.

And looking around, you could kind of see why he thought that way, for the Freedom Fighters had stumbled into Robotnik's dastardly trap [and security web] by going the taunted path [egged on by Robotnik, and stupidly followed by Sonic] in this here Sky Deck. Naturally, there was a security force waiting to intercept them [with whirring alarm thrown in], but unlike Knuckles before, there was thirty-fold of each Badnik and so things were getting, well, rather chaotic!

"Even if I were inclined to disagree Rotor, I don't think we have much choice but to fight here, unless, you have a better idea?" Sally replied as she delivered a judo dropkick to a Batbot in mid-dive, cracking its shell apart in seconds.

For one quick moment, it looked like the walrus had, but then his face fell and silence was the final answer. And so the fight continued on.

A gust not much unlike a small typhoon roared across another area of the battlefield, decimating several Caterkillers, Batbots and Orbinauts.

"Hey! Leave some for the rest of us, sugah hog," Bunnie whined playfully as she finished restructuring a Batbot, by slamming both her palms together to its cranium.

"Heh, heh, sorry Bunnie," Sonic half-smirked, "Here's one I made earlier," he said next, kicking over a Caterkiller that had been about to bite his tail.

"Where was _that_ from?" she said incredulously, looking as though she wanted to burst into giggles at any second.

"Just from some TV show I watched once…" was the hedgehog's hastily and mumbled reply.

"Righto then," was her simple reply, a small smirk realising on her face as she recalled just where she'd heard that turn of phrase before.

Over in another corner were Tails, Rotor and Antoine.

"Ow, ow, OWs!" Antoine howled, as a trio of Orbinaut made him their prey of the day and threw their spiked balls his way. But then, that was what playing 'bait' entitled enduring did it not?

And so using the diversion the other two aforementioned characters sprang from behind at the [now] defenceless Orbinauts, with Tails flying straight at them and Rotor charging. The result was like a flambé igniting, sizzling and hot!

With this line of defence almost depleted, you'd have thought the win was in the bag, but you have to take into account these few factors, namely: they'd participated in at least three bouts of fighting this day alone [on land, water and air] and one involved long treks across unknown terrains beforehand, and that they'd been emotionally tested in the last few days also [through Amy, Chaos & Knuckles], so, quite frankly, the fatigue was beginning to show…

The ever-graceful judo expert Princess Sally was now more sluggish in her actions, and her comrades were faring the same [if not worse] than she was now. If the Badniks had mouths then they'd be grinning wildly right now, with excited drool coming of them as they surrounded their lambs for the slaughter.

"Non, non… Does anyone have any brightest ideas to get out of this foul mess?" Antoine said warily to the others, as the Badniks' reinforcements began pouring out of hatches in the walls.

Seeing the thirty plus Badniks that'd cornered them and no obvious escape route – rendered the group racking their brains and a defeated-resounding silence to take helm.

It looked like Robotnik and Snively would have them captured, screaming more than kicking, after all this time. And that sucked, to be quite frank, in Sonic's eyes – and he wasn't having this, and so, he began a vocal protest, albeit abit wary for words too.

"Hey, come on guys, we've been in tougher digs than this… We can't be beaten by a bunch of recycled tin cans, not when all of Mobius is still counting on us to get rid of Robuttnik – who's with me?!"

"That's music to mah ears sugah," Bunnie said diligently in support, assuming a battle stance, despite her getting tired-like expression.

"There's no way I'll be backing down now, not if there's any hope I, and all of us, can see our families again," Rotor said strongly, a harsh edge to his tone.

"Hell will freeze over before I submit to Robotnik", Sally barked in a flash of pent-up anger.

"Until we beat Robotnik the planet will never be safe, so we can't be afraid!" the young, slightly put-on voice of Tails finished before the Badniks, weapons at the ready, charged at them.

* * *

What happened next was an unexpected but delightful turn of events.

Suddenly, the whirring alarm [which seconded as a door-locking mechanism] broke apart with a loud crunch, and a thunderous battle cry preceded several pummelled Badniks.

"Hey guys," the guardian fretted just a little awkwardly in their direction, avoiding eye contact.

"There you are Knuckles, it's about time. I thought you'd gotten lost," Sonic smirked

"And I thought you needed some help you blue show-off," Knuckles retorted in his usual gruffly voice, shoving his face in Sonic's.

"Oh boy, they're at it again," Tails exasperated to Sally, who was standing next to him protectively.

"Don' worry hun," Bunnie reassured him from behind, "This hoo-hah will frizzle out in three… two… one," she said confidently.

And sure enough silence came back to the forefront as the two rivals' huff and puffs ended, leaving the pair childishly standing back to back with arms crossed. Even Tails, the youngest of the Freedom Fighter group and Sonic's biggest [male] admirer, had to admit that he couldn't take his stubbornness sometimes. But it was nice to be more mature than him sometimes, he secretly thought. Maybe, he could become a true hero alike him one day too.

"How did you…?" he asked of his Aunt Bunnie thereafter.

"Experience darlin', just experience," Bunnie murmured whilst ruffling his coarse head hairs, as Sally rounded them all together to discuss where to go from here and also to talk with Knuckles.

"Knuckles… I-" Princess Sally began with a half guilty and half shrewd expression on, hoping to soothe the inflicted wounds of earlier before Chaos elevated it to team-breaking levels in their near future.

"Save it Princess, I know what you're going to say," Knuckles said tactfully, "but I'm the one who should be saying sorry." He looked at her square in the eyes for the first time since their last meeting, and she did the same, her strewed expression slowly panning way to a neutral, friendly one as he continued. "For doubting you all and offending you if I did… I was just angry and my impatience got the better of me," then he began to waffle. "I'll try to keep it in better check, alright? But know now that sometimes I just _can't_ help but let off some steam."

He coughed uncomfortably, not used to being so open and in touch with his 'emotions', and so he simply ended with: "I don't know what else to say…"

"That was quite tze apologizes o Sky Guardian," Antoine applauded. "Nothing more you need say, agreed?" The Frenchman asked rather decidingly of his peers.

"I can go with that," Sonic chirped, whose emotional manner apparently pin ponged almost as fast as he could run, at least, regarding Knuckles.

"Hmm, well," Bunnie drawled out, uncertainty apparent in her voice, "I'll accept it this time mister, but in the future you really need to watch what you say before yah say it, you get me?" she scolded.

Knuckles nodded to this, before a tap on the shoulder reminded him of who he'd been speaking to originally, i.e. it was Princess Sally and she had her right hand stretched out, waiting for a returning shake. And so he complied.

"Apology accepted then Knuckles, but in the future… you best take hold of what Bunnie said," she said necessarily harshly, "-and be less brazen with those whom you insulted. It was completely uncalled for."

"Yes, Sally, I will," the guardian said, always one to bend [easier] to an authority's will. And with that resolved, they all figured that Robotnik and Chaos would be at the Egg Carrier's bridge, and so they began to make way to the new exit.

"So did you get the other Master Emerald pieces then, Knuckles?" asked a curious Tails as they strode through the [now] open doorway to the airship's bridge.

"As a matter of fact I did Tails," Knuckles grinned [a little], "and after we beat Chaos here, then I'll be off to restore it and the Floating Island to the heavens where they belong."

But for now, he and they all had just that to do – it was time to go knockin' on Robotnik's door.

* * *

**EGG CARRIER / MAIN DECK / 19:23 PM**

_*Play Sonic Adventure – Egg Carrier ~A Song That Keeps Us On The Move*_

One short tunnel of many shining green, yellow and red lights [and not much else] later, and the Freedom Fighters emerged at the main deck of the vessel at large, where the weather was still chilly – helped ever moreso by the fact that night had truly fallen [one could just about see the moon's light in the distance, below the cloud line] – and the sights on this deck were not much better.

"Argh! The Sky Deck was meant to hold you up longer – I hate you little brats!"came the sulky voice of planet tyrant extraordinaire, Dr Robotnik himself, from his Egg-o-Matic craft. And by his ever side was of course, his lackey and nephew, Snively, the one with the long pointed nose like Pinocchio would've been, had he been in politics.

"I told you we should've captured straight from their tacky plane's wreckage," sneered the aforementioned, earning him a glare from Tails, the Tornado Planes creator.

Thankfully there was a silver lining to this encounter for standing up against the two villains was an old friend.

"Guys, over here!" Amy Rose shouted happily from behind the villainous duo, her bird Crystal tweeting fearfully in her arms. It looked like the pair had escaped without their help after all, and furthermore had something that Robotnik wanted.

And now that they had the dictator cornered, it was time for some payback.

"Hah, you're too late!" Robotnik said with glee as he hook and suckered the blue Flicky from Amy's grasp, a smug grin on his face as he rummaged the bird for what he'd figured all along, only to find that it wasn't there!

"_What?_" he said exasperated. "It doesn't have the last emerald?"

"Nope, but we have some," said a cocky Sonic all sing-song like, juggling the Yellow Emerald of the three they had in their possession as he did so. And it was only the one because Sally and the rest didn't wish for any accidents involving them with him.

"Argh! No matter… I'll just snatch the emeralds from you before I throw the lot of you overboard," Robotnik said venomously, his face as red as a tomato. "Gamma!"

The robot in question had been hovering silently above the scene for this moment, but at his master's beckoning he elegantly came straight down, tucking in his helicopter-like blades and assuming his default battle mode. Despite the robot's relatively small frame, the sudden change of tide put the Freedom Fighters on reasonable edge.

"_What is your wish, Master Robotnik?_" Gamma said in his ever digitalised monotone voice, cocking his gun

To the left most of the standing group was Knuckles, who'd been mostly ignoring the spatting match that had preceded this Gamma's arrival, and instead keeping an eye out for Chaos. At this moment, however, the most notable thing he could see was the shocked expression that Amy had on her face towards the aforementioned robot [now reunited with the light blue bird], which was curious.

_Had she had a run in with him after her escape? But if so_, he thought puzzled, _why is there no damage marks on his body?_

"Get rid of these pests! Show them what you're got!" Robotnik said eagerly, allowing himself a small chuckle at his foes' expense.

"_Aye, aye, sir. Will comply,_" Gamma replied, extending its gun out at its intended targets, from what his memory banks [and his master's speeches] told him were none other than the criminal 'Freedom Fighters' themselves.

"And don't disappoint me. Or else!" he warned.

"Yeah, you piece of-" Snively echoed, wanting to get a word in edgeways, before Robotnik's swift escape in the Egg-o-Matic cut short that desire and disappeared below the deck somewhere ahead.

"Well this shouldn't be so hard," Sonic shrugged, "I'll take care of this walking scrapyard, guys."

"Fine," Sally said simply. "But be quick about it, Chaos is still at large-"

"Yeah, yeah, Chaos Bhaos," the cerulean hedgehog retorted casually before crouching down into a ball, ready to Spindash the robot deemed Gamma into the nearest scrapheap.

* * *

"No, please, stop it, Sonic!" Amy suddenly cries out, stepping protectively in front of Gamma. "You too, Mr Robot!"

"Amy girl, what in the world?" Bunnie breathed, as shocked as the rest of them. Knuckles especially, for it had only confirmed his earlier fears, she hadn't battled Gamma at all and so that only left one thing, she had been compromised…

"Tze mademoiselle has lost it," Antoine interjected. "Has tze evil one got her mind controlled?"

"Amy, step away from the robot. It'll hurt you," Sally said worriedly, deciding to analyse the girl's state of mind later, namely _after_ they'd saved her from the robot standing in front of her [and them all].

Everyone had rushed forward in a bid to secure their friend's safety, but Sonic held them back with a arm waving gesture, which across most cultures would translate as 'keep away, I've got this'.

"Amy, what is this?" said Sonic in confused frustration. "That's one of Robotnik's conkers – you know it's dangerous – so out of my way!"he shouted.

"No, you've got it all wrong!" the hedgehog female pleaded, still rooted to the spot. "This robot is my friend." She then turned to him.

"Gamma, don't you remember who you were before? Think back to when you set me free from my cell earlier, you helped me, and that _does_ make you different from the other robots. So please, don't hurt each other!" Amy spoke passionately, inwardly realising that Gamma's demeanour reminded her of a child in need of nurturing.

The robot shook erratically once more before calming down, forcing the gang to look to Sonic for his personal assessment of the situation, despite their own glaring doubts.

"Okay, whatever you say," he replied nonchalantly. "You must have your reasons, and we… err… need to have a bit more faith in you I guess," he stumbled over his genuine words, prompting a small girly giggle from one Amy Rose.

"Thanks Sonic, that was sweet, and for all of you to come and rescue me!" she thanked joyfully before switching the topic to their current primary mission objective. "So what are we doing now?"

"We need to put Chaos out of commission," Sally explained. "But it's not going to be easy, Amy…"

"Yah, not with his fear powers," Bunnie added; the raw pain of unburied memories from last time still somewhere on her mind.

"Okay," Amy nodded, having an idea of the sort of things such a power would make her endure. "But together I know we can do this!"

"That ah girl," Bunnie complimented, before joining Rotor and Sally in scanning for Robotnik's current location with NICOLE. This left the rest to witness Amy's last talk with Gamma.

"Are you okay?" the rosette hedgehog asked of the robot, who'd been standing quietly around during their conversation and been about to walk off. "It's dangerous here. Don't pay attention to Robotnik anymore, so free yourself – come on!"

The passionate and kind words had an uncanny effect on Gamma once more, prompting him to shake erratically and ask of her this:

"_Why are you helping me?_"

"I said we'll be friends and I'm returning your favour," she replied tactfully. "Even this birdy wants you to be free," she said, allowing the happy-looking Crystal to flap in front of him. "Robotnik's not the kind of man you should work for," she politely warned.

Gamma answered with no words but with a salute, which had his gun cocked to the skies, and with that he changed into his hover mode and soared downward to the earth below.

He knew now what he had to do.

"Until we meet again, Mr. Robot..." Amy said quietly after him, a small ounce of sadness in her voice. "Take care of yourself."

* * *

"Aha!" yelled a gleeful madman as he acted. With a long but mobile hook Robotnik snatched the two [of their three] emeralds from the Freedom Fighter's prised hands [which, in Robotnik's favour, was rather silly of them to be honest]. Turns out he'd been hiding just underneath the eye line of the deck waiting for just an opportunity, Snively was not with him.

"The emeralds!" Tails exclaimed, quickly taking flight after him.

"Forget about it you pint-sized fool," Robotnik cackled, smashing his left robotized arm across the youth's chest, causing him to plummet down into his Aunts' arms. "You could never beat me in a fight."

"Ha, ha, ha, ha!" he boomed, hovering menacingly above them. "I'll be over there," he said, pointing to the green, illuminated flat dome at the centre of the vessel. "Come, if you dare face the full might of Chaos!" And with that he jetted off and out of sight again.

"Oh, we will Eggy! And once we deal with your new pet then we'll knock you for size! You hear me?!" Sonic shouted after him, as many words being left unsaid as the howling winds ensured that Robotnik didn't hear him.

"Then I guess it's time to finish this, eh guys?" Knuckles piped up, looking relatively eager whilst he practiced his punching moves.

"Well, let's approach this with some caution," Rotor began tactfully, talking to them all.

"Oui, oui," Antoine added. "Chaos iz a very strong and fearsome foul beast, caution we must take!"

"You said it knucklehead," Sonic said cheekily, cutting Rotor and Antoine off. "So let's GO!"

And with that said, the azure hedgehog sprinted off, followed closely by his other comrades as they headed for what would be the prelude to their final fight with Chaos – and one that would change their fates forever.

* * *

XXXXX

**Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream**

XXXXX

* * *

And thus ends the eightieth chapter of this story arc!

Hmm, so, it's been noted in a few reviews, but the firsthand and third-hand perspective jig is something I really want to stick with, so I've included a tag to help easier identify which perspective I'm going with in the [rare] instance that I feel I need the two of them in one chapter.

Also it's been noted that my grammar and spelling could do with a check now and again, so again any nudges on that [even if you spend a review just listing them] would be a-okay!

EDIT: It looked like someone read my mind [and former paragraph], as someone critically detailed Chapter 2 of this story, and so in response, I've revamped it, Chapter 1, 3 and 4 alongside this one [where I edited it to be two emeralds snatched, not three]. I hope they flow better and or make more sense now!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this, and the chapters so far, any comments would be nice and appreciated! ^-^

* * *

'**Chaos' Requiem' is the next chapter.**

Take care ya'll ***smiley face***


	21. Chaos' Requiem

**Disclaimer**: _I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "**Change The World**" by ARTIST Dream

* * *

**CHAPTER 19: Chaos' Requiem **

"Are you sure you don't want a lift?" the young fox Tails asked politely of his female hedgehog friend, as he and the rest flew [and ran] ever closer to the assigned battle arena aboard the Egg Carrier.

"Thanks for the offer, Tails," Amy answered sweetly, "but I'm fine with running up there myself." And from the lack of fatigue on her form, she probably wasn't lying, so Tails nodded calmly before he turned his eyes to the skies above.

Night had eclipsed Planet Mobius, and the air was unnaturally chilly now, as though the planet had been thrown into an intergalactic-sized freezer. Needless to say, it was unnerving to Tails and them all. Not to mention the furious lightning, oh how Tails _hated_ lightning…

Within five minutes the gang had arrived at the bottom of the green flat dome, which, now that they were closer to it, was revealed to be transparent and filled with bustling machinery which led all the way down into the vessel. The building also had a spiralling lime green staircase around its circumference leading to its top

"NICOLE, we need a heads up on what we'll find up there, can you run a quick scan please?" Princess Sally diligently asked of the supercomputer in her palm, waving back everyone else's attempts at advancing [which was mainly Sonic, unsurprisingly].

"_Scanning… Sally,_" NICOLE acknowledged, humming slightly as it did so.

"_I detect… two human life forms… and one powerful Chaos Emerald signature,_" the supercomputer regurgitated exactly fourteen seconds later.

"The whole party is here then," Rotor sighed, physically shivering at the thought. "Robotnik, Snively and Chaos..."

"It makes yah palms sweat and yah mind race in terror too, sugah?" Bunnie echoed reluctantly.

"That's one way of putting it," the wary walrus replied, genuine terror apparent, before withdrawing back into himself, presumably to think of a plan of attack to Chaos' inevitable new form.

"Oh no… This is thee end of mi handsome self as I know it…" Antoine said doubtfully, covering his head with his palms and looking, well, just a little bit cowardly.

"No sweat guys," Sonic calmly said, gesturing his athletic fitness by stretching his arms and legs. "We've beaten him already today, so a second strike should be a piece of cake," he casually concluded.

"Honestly, you shouldn't be so overconfident you Blue-Showoff, you should expect the unexpected from fight to fight, even with the same opponent," Knuckles scolded. "I should know, I've fought him two times today and this'll be the _third_ – and just from those two I can tell you now that his fighting prowess has changed with each new grotesque form."

"I agree with Knuckles, this isn't the time to joke around," Sally commended.

"Sal," Sonic retorted, rolling his eyes at her. "Now's a better time than any for a small joke. Someone has to keep our spirits up, or we might as well be rendered insane right now."

It was quiet for another minute or so, before Sally spoke again.

"Fine, fine – but we really should get on with this, less we give Robotnik [and Chaos] more time to get the jump on us," she suggested hastily.

A resounding 'Right' was uttered enthusiastically by all, and then they ran up the spiralling staircase, pumped for the day's [hopeful] last battle.

* * *

At the top, below the thunderous mushroom clouds, was a sight they were expecting, and at the same time not.

"Unbelievable… that's Chaos?" came the hoarse and shocked cry of a certain cobalt blue hedgehog as his eyes took in Chaos, whom was now in its sixth incarnation.

_He's so distorted and unlike his first form… It's actually a bit scary,_ he admitted inwardly.

The deemed 'Chaos Six' was far beyond looking even _vaguely_ humanoid and was now a twenty-five foot tall scorpion-like creature. One with eight or more eyes that eluded insanity and or rage, a bulldog-like head and a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth that would give new meaning to 'tear someone a new one'. It also had a pendulum-like blade crowning the tip of its new tail and the six Chaos Emeralds scattered throughout its [presumed] slimy body. Needless to say, it looked like an Eldritch Abomination*****.

And his 'fear effect' was in overdrive, as it all the Freedom Fighters [bar Knuckles] were literally quaking in their boots [or shoes].

"Aww, what's the matter Freedom Fighters? _Chicken?_" came a sneering and slimy voice from across the other edge of the illuminating platform. And it wasn't Robotnik, so that left only…

"Take a hike Snivelbutt; no one wants you here, not even your _uncle_," Sonic spat tensely, the words of truth hitting home, whom was shaking with the rest of them, namely at the surfacing memory of the day he'd lost his Uncle Chuck.

The pint-sized villain gasped before his face turned into a large scowl."W-what! How dare you, you f-furry abomination! My uncle _does_ value my skills!"

A full moment went by, and the gravity of Snively's claim wasn't acknowledged at all by Robotnik, who was too busy admiring the six collected emeralds in his Egg-o-Matic, which loomed above the specified arena.

"Sure, sure," Sonic smirked, shrugging the debacle off, before twirling around to check on his teammates, only to find them all in horrid fits of anxiety.

His eyes practically doubled in size at the sight.

"Father… Oh father, where are you…?" Sally whimpered; clutching her head as the 'fear effect' took hold, causing every convulsion she had to remind her of her father, the one taken from her by Robotnik. "I don't know what to do… Can you please help me?"

"_Sally, everything will be fine. Trust me. Please wake up_," came the humming pleas from NICOLE, who was still in the shaking palms of the kneeled rebel Princess.

Our cobalt blue hedgehog skidded down to his knees and began lightly shaking his comrade, friend [and teased crush], his eyes growing only slightly moist.

"Hey, hey, come on Sal, I thought you were stronger than this," he said lightly, trying to inject some relief into what was otherwise a depressing situation. "Snap a witty comeback at me. I'm wide open. Anything!" It was a fruitless act as Sally instead curled up into a ball and quietly whimpered on, which had the horrid effect of sinking Sonic's usual ever-radiant heart.

"What's going on, Sonic? Is this that 'fear effect' you guys mentioned earlier?" asked the confused Knuckles, still being the only one immune to the effect, a fact which grinded on Sonic's nerves right now. So much so, that he lashed out at his comrade and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, and in a move that surprised him [and Knuckles], lifted the Guardian off of the ground.

"Yes! The one that _you_ seem to be magically immune to!" Sonic flared, his mood being intensified and influenced by Chaos' negative miasma. "Care to share the how's and why's? – They need our help!" The hedgehog continued, pointing furiously at his ailing teammates.

At Sally, who was still in the same position as before, but had now turned her spiralling thoughts onto her mother, the one whom had died a year or two after her birth [so her motherly memories were foggy at best].

At Antoine, who despite being a hit or miss fighter with his ever-wavering confidence [or just plain cowardice, for those who see it that way], had never doubted his honour, to his mother tongue, to 'his' Princess, to their fighting cause or to them all. Not like he was now, painfully sobbing out at what a failure he was.

At Bunnie, ever the strongest one of mind and body [save, perhaps for Knuckles], who was calling fiercely out to her Aunt Lulumae and Uncle Beauregard, as well as saying sorry to her 'mamma and poppa'.

And finally at Tails, the youngest of them all, who had a torrent of tears covering his face as he underwent his own personal nightmare. A nightmare that, from what Sonic could hear, involved him, the other Freedom Fighters and the little tyke's own missing relatives.

The sight brought Knuckles to another dam of emotional awareness, and slammed it down in one swift stroke.

"I don't k-know, Sonic!" Knuckles choked though the grip, "H-honestly I don't!"

The hedgehog's grip on the Guardian's neck lessened, but still his hands remained where they were. Someone obviously wasn't that convinced of Knuckle's innocence just yet.

"There are still things that I can do… that I've noticed about my abilities, which I don't understand," he went on to explain slowly. "Answers I'm still searching for," he said just above a whisper, so that only he and Sonic could hear it, and not Snively who'd been chuckling happily at their current situation.

It took all the willpower that Sonic had within him to not let his arms and hands [and the muscles underneath], which yearned, no, _ached_, for the anticipation of pleasure that wrapping them around the small, ogre-looking figure's neck would bring, loose. And then twisting it for good measure...

Angry questionable thoughts aside, by now Knuckles had finished diverging his thoughts on the immunity matter.

"… So, you think that the Master Emerald has made you immune to such effects?" Sonic repeated calmly, as though it'd make the words come true.

Knuckles, now with his two feet firmly on the ground again, nodded, before adding: "Yeah, I'm just more resistant to Chaos energies than you guys, something this beast obviously has ties with," he said tentatively, as he scowled at the beast.

* * *

Just then a streak of compressed water rocketed past in-between them, prompting them to remember [with tensed hearts], just why they were there. The face [if you could call it that] that Chaos Six wore what could only be described as an impatient sneer.

"There we go," Robotnik announced with a tint of annoyance in his tone. "An end to all the boring _talking_," he drawled out in a patronising whine. "Now, it's BATTLE TIME – destroy them all Chaos!" he screamed like the madman he was.

"Not so fast Eggy," Sonic taunted, wiggling his index finger in an 'uh, uh, uh' like fashion. "First we need to even the score. Knuckles, if you please," he said casually, extending out his right palm and wiggling his fingertips just slightly.

"Huh?" was the Guardian's clueless response.

"Grab, spin and throw me at Chaos," the hedgehog muttered as quietly but clearly as he could, forcing his face not to scrunch up so it was only his mouth moving an ounce. "Don't ask any questions, just do it."

Knuckles' eyes narrowed, but he nodded nevertheless, before grabbing the hedgehog's right palm and gaining momentum from one full spin, before throwing the hedgehog over his shoulder like one would a bowling ball, if one were to throw it over one's head, that is. Typically the act of lifting and throwing someone would wear on the arm [and back] muscles, but not our Guardian, he wasn't even smouldering up a sweat and his muscles were only aching for some action! Besides Sonic, despite all that he ate, didn't weight much at all.

And with a resounding 'plop', the curled-ball hedgehog entered the belly of the beast, with traces of the bluish-white light [from the charged Spin Attack] dying promptly within.

Knuckles, Robotnik and Snively stood silently, eyes fixed on Chaos for its reaction.

Oddly enough, the watery beast did nothing but quietly hiss, though, its dozen eyes were working overtime, as they scurried to and fro along its body, keeping an eye on the rogue intruder, who was now over halfway into its mass.

Sonic, meanwhile was deep in thought as he neared his goal.

_Whoa!_ He admonished himself. _Who'd have thought that it would be warmer in here than out there in that icy storm? _

And it was, and as much as it should've disturbed him, the hedgehog was actually enjoying the warm water against his short, furred skin, it was even somewhat revitalising. Not that it made being underwater any less terrifying, for it was a phobia of his, after all. His lungs were already slowly burning, indicating that he'd run out of oxygen soon, and probably after only another minute, Sonic deduced quickly.

All this aside, he just hoped that his momentum didn't run out before he could splash out of the other side…

Thankfully for the cobalt blue hedgehog, that didn't come to pass, this time, and he was shot out with a 'plop' faster than a pirate could down a pint of rum [or grog, should that tickle their fancy instead]. A gooey puddle surrounded Sonic, who Snively immediately noticed had changed momentarily. For a thin sheen of cold sweat covered his skin, doubled in size were his eyes and he was screaming like a banshee. And it filled him with pleasurable glee, that Chaos had inflicted a heavy toll on one of his mortal enemies.

The need air then overtook the teen hedgehog and after coughing up a load of water later, he swiftly looked around for his comrades, and a smile etched onto his face at what he then saw.

Everyone was standing up, and from the hardened expressions they wore, they were ready to rumble!

_And who said violence didn't solve anything_, Sonic bemused to himself. _Oh wait, it was Sal. No change there, ha, ha._

"You sure you guys are alright now?" asked a concerned Knuckles. It was an odd picture, Knuckles being more open with them all, but for the cobalt blue hedgehog it was one he could see himself getting used to in the future.

"Yah, thanks all the same darlin's, but the effect has been weakened for the time being, so let's get this showdown on the road ya'll!" Bunnie shouted enthusiastically, a complete different person from just a few minutes ago

Everyone nodded and assumed they're battle stances, pumped for one of the biggest battles of their lives.

* * *

"Ha, ha! Now, I have-" Robotnik began once more, before a series of heavy thuds then averted everyone's attentions once more, namely to the staircase the Freedom Fighters had gone up several minutes ago. Robotnik for one was the most confused, for he hadn't ordered any surprise back-attacks…

He came out of the shadows and was revealed by a particularly excited streak of lightning overhead, to be none other than a large Mobian Cat. Not one of the Freedom Fighters had much, if any experience with the species so they couldn't place a guesstimate on the newcomer's age, so all they had to go on was that he was a purple striped cat with yellow eyes. And one that also had a small, but steady-looking fishing rod is his hands.

He didn't look intimidating, nor was he robotised so that ruled out another Robotnik flunky… they figured quickly.

"Froggy?" drawled the newcomer in a slow and casual tone, albeit one with horror at seeing the frog in such a state. His yellow beaming eyes were also as wide as saucers. "Froggy! I'll save you... Don't worry pally," the cat shouted brightly.

"Big…?" Knuckles whispered. No one heard him.

"So he's your friend, eh?" Sonic deduced steadfast.

Big looked his way and nodded briskly in response, and then his eyes were back on 'Froggy', filled with worry.

Amy and Tails also felt for the guy, having known what losing friends was like.

"No sweat... we'll get him back! Just watch us!" Sonic announced heroically, before he dashed forward and lead the charge.

"Careful Froggy! Don't worry. We'll get ya back!" the big cat shouted brightly again.

"Ha, ha, ha, ha! And now I have six of the Chaos Emeralds", the mad doctor gloated articulately. "Now there's only one more left to find!"

"I even found Chaos' missing tail," the doctor cried excitedly, pointing at Chaos' new tail.

"You won't get away with this Robotnik – you will pay for your crimes – that I promise!" Sally declared, casting a determined azure glare at their foe whilst standing in front of her assembled team.

"I will, you incisive pests," Robotnik spat venomously at her particularly in response before turning his watchful eye over them all. "You're no match for Chaos even though he's not perfected yet."

With some quick melodramatic gestures of his arms, Robotnik then ordered Chaos to finish them.

"Okay, Chaos, destroy them all immediately! Leave not a trace of them having existed!" he boomed.

"Let's do this!" Sonic hollered, an even smile on his face as he light-dashed into the encompassing fray, with the others dividing up into groups behind him.

* * *

_*Play Sonic Adventure – Chaos 6 Battle Music*_

Wasting no time, Chaos Six reeled out five tentacles from its body and shot them forward, unleashing also a giant funnel of water to mask his movements.

Bunnie, using her lithe form was able to bunny-hop out of its way [no pun intended] and roll to the side. Whereas her comrades opted for other approaches; Rotor, knowing his strength couldn't stand against such compressed water, purposively fell flat on his belly and let the single tentacle careen over his head [and had grabbed Tails with him].

Antoine successively slashed through them like they were made of butter, in a daring move, and one that looked only to improve his chances with the Princess [or so he dreamily thought to himself]. And Amy, in another bold move, struck her hammer at the invading arm and missed, but it in turn flipped the hot pink furred hedgehog a metre or two into the air [surprising her as much as it did everyone else]. Thankfully she landed on her feet gracefully, and bore a thoughtful expression on her features.

Failing to swiftly deal with the 'inferior' targets, the chaotic agents inside the over-bloated beast primed instead onto Sonic, shooting all its tentacles at him from all sides. It looked like our favourite superhero hedgehog was about to met a turbulent [and watery] end.

Then, faster than most could blink, the cobalt blue hedgehog did a spinning handstand and began kicking out his feet at supersonic speeds, deflecting all the tentacles that came his way. Not beginning to even consider letting its foe escape its touch, the water beast jumped a metre into the air, producing a seismic shockwave that swept the hedgehog off his feet.

"Ok, time out! Foul! Offside! Whoa!" Sonic suddenly shouted every sports analogy he knew. "What was that? This blob of goo can jump _and_ cause earthquakes now?"

"Impressive, isn't he blue pincushion?" Robotnik sneered from his position above the battlefield.

"I've seen better super villain powers on TV to be honest, Blubberchops" Sonic retorted unimpressed.

Robotnik visibly scathed at that remark and said no more, opting instead to watch this battle royale and hope for his jubilant victory.

"Now what are we to be doing ma Princess?" Antoine fretted, sword at the ready and his eyes darting about everywhere.

"Hmm, one moment Antoine," she responded somewhat absent-mindly, for she had herself been trying to deduce a weak spot, but to no real avail. The furious winds weren't making concentrating on staying on the ground, avoiding attacks and brainstorming any easier either, but at least visibility was good [for it wasn't raining at the moment].

"NICOLE, is there any weakness in 'Chaos Six's' structure that we can exploit?"

"_I'm on it Sally,_" it hummed regularly, before suddenly crying out. "_Behind you!_" the supercomputer said worriedly in one of its rarer moments of 'motherly-like' tones, noting that a water funnel was coming straight at the Princess.

Reacting as quickly as she was able, Sally attempted to back-flip over the approaching water beam, but only managed to bend over backwards so that it passed right over her, the warm water cooling off her chest. With no damage done, nor herself knocked off the arena, she snapped back upright as the water funnels duration ended; allowing her time to reconvene with NICOLE.

"Thanks NICOLE, so, was there anything?" she asked hopefully, ready to move at a second's notice should Chaos feel trigger happy again.

"_There was nothing, Sally. I'm sorry,_" the supercomputer hummed, before handily switching herself off.

"Figures", the Princess grumbled as she stared down their multiple-eyed foe. _Eyes…_ she thought frantically, _if we could blind him then we might stand a chance yet!_

_

* * *

  
_

Bunnie Rabbot, meanwhile, had a similar brainwave, and was itching to try it out.

"Amy doll, Antoine," she asked promptly. "Cover me will ya'll?"

The two had barely nodded, before the rabbit woman had sprinted off to fulfil whatever she had in mind, leaving the two designated to stand fiercely, arms at the ready [in their case, a sword and mallet]. For anyone that knew Bunnie Rabbot, it was a definite possibility that Chaos would soon be in for a rude reckoning

And skipping to one side, forward-flipping and barrel rolling onward with aerobatic prowess was that same woman, doomed to be half-living and involved in this clash of wills till its conclusion; a thought that ailed and kept her striding ever forward.

_Heavens to Bunnie. Would ya look at that ugly 'ol thing?_ She thought as she reached the inner sanctum of Chaos Six, and got her first real eyeful of the watery beast. Its sea green eyeballs scurried like rats across its slimy surface and gave her the willies, but worse of all the smell and humidity of the bloated mess [something only one as close as her could get a whiff of]; it was like putrid milk, rotting meat and unmentionables all rolled into one. In short, it smelt like death and from the way it was excitedly growling as it tried to squeeze, slice and dice her friends; Chaos was probably good at dealing it out too!

_Well that's the easy part outta the way… Now I just gotta yank myself up this oversized, retching guava pineapple_, she belched inwardly, less than glad that her friends' attention were the factor drawing Chaos' away from her.

Gritting her teeth, she made a disgusted noise in the back of her throat before she too k off, sailing the air like a leaping gazelle until she felt warm flesh meet wet flesh. And since the latter of which would devour her whole if she dallied too long, she decided to do came naturally to her species – she ran – turning into a sprint in a number of seconds as her eyes focused on her target above: the biggest and main eye of the beast.

As she ascended, the tiny, splashing patter of her feet were complimented by the smashes and clings of her comrades' offensive taking place somewhere behind.

And at the top of the twenty five foot Olympus, about fifteen seconds later, Bunnie was about to wallop the main eye into oblivion when something slimy suddenly jolted one of her arms up into the air with eager force.

"Yaouch!" Bunnie cried out, more an expression of how frowningly disappointed she was at her early failure than of any real pain [she could tell nothing had been broken or dislodged at least].

"Heh," she smirked, tightening her straddle hold on the outer rim of the main eye like she'd do on her old horse back in the south, as she realised just which arm it'd grabbed. "You'll have to do better than that to impress me hun," she continued sweetly, "and for starters, you have to take me by the correct arm!" she hollered angrily before reeling back her free metallic arm and smashing it straight into Chao Six's main eye.

The primal scream it unleashed thundered across every molecule of its body, sending it into spasms and tossing off a certain bunny female into the air like she were but a mere flea [which, comparing their sizes, actually makes some literal sense].

"O-oh m-my s-stars-s-s!" her echoing voice sounded, wiggling in midair to try and get herself upright. Unfortunately for her, that just wasn't happening today.

_Now I really wish I had rocket boosters in mah feet, like all those folk in Rotor's sci-fi flicks!_ She thought erratically, seeing the sea green ground rocketing to meet her. _Is this it…?_

Then she fell no more, and was meet only with a gruffly, even voice.

"Are you all right?"

She looked up to that her savoir was none other than Knuckles the Guardian, which caused her to gasp out loud, for she'd never been this close and personal with the echidna before now… And it was something her girly side couldn't help but tease.

"I'm fine sugah, thanks to you…" she purred, which to no one's surprise, flustered Knuckles' nerves, causing him to scrunch his face and narrow his eyes, all whilst continuing to stare straight ahead. The Guardian didn't dislike the woman, but her girly 'charm' as others had called it could be rather strong at times, and it just made him feel uncomfortable.

Still, he felt he needed to answer so…

"Hmph," he scoffed. "I didn't do it for you – I was on my way up to giving a good pummelling to that eye too – then you got there beforehand and fell," he explained irritably. "There was nothing more to this than that."

"I know what this here meant, sugar. I was just yankin' your tail," Bunnie laughed off as they landed and promptly hopped out of the Guardian's touch, rejoining the others who were happy to see her [especially since she didn't just, like, die]. But as best gal friends Sally and Bunnie hugged, the latter didn't see the disapproving sneer that their French comrade gave at the Guardian of the Master Emerald.

"Good work Bunnie," Sally commended her. "It looks like I don't need to mission debrief that weakness to you all now!" she laughed, mocking herself, which just caused Bunnie to roll her eyes.

"Yeah Bunnie, you gave that Chaos creep a good pounding _and_ you softened ol' gruff-features over there, I'd call that a great days work," was Sonic's witty interjection, sugar-sprinkled off with that should-be trademark wink of his. Bunnie giggled at his remark, and Knuckles not so much so [he gave the 'Blue-Showoff' a deathly glare].

"Oui, oui, a good show you made mademoiselle," Antoine chipped in hurriedly, but in a voice that was still filled to the brim with gentle emotion, before launching himself back into the fray with Rotor and Amy.

"You kicked some butt Aunt Bunnie!" Tails exclaimed.

"Hey, hey, look at the little man using questionably naughty grown-up words, Sally girl," Bunnie teasingly scolded the young fox. "Isn't that something precious?"

"Hmm, yeah, something 'precious' of the Sonic kind I'm sure," Princess Sally mumbled just enough so everyone present could hear, even over the continuing roars and weapon strikes in the background.

The cobalt blue hedgehog in question raised his arms up in mock protest. "We'll talk about Tails' probable overexposure to you later, Sonic," she stated simply, ending the matter [and now was hardly the time].

"Now, Bunnie has opened up a new battle strategy for us to muster," she began diligently, but when the Princess saw that the cerulean hedgehog was about to interject an idea, she immediately cut him off in a stern but sweetly toned voice.

"And no, while it may usually work for you, "run as fast as you can" is NOT a plan, Sonic!"

His mouth glued shut after that remark, leaving the rebel leader to make the final battle decision.

"Okay guys, spread out and go for the eyes!" Sally commanded with steadfast faith, a talent that she'd adapted and honed from her many Princess lessons when she were but a small, but talkative young girl. "Back each other up if you can and let's blind this beast as soon as possible. He'll be easier to take down then," she said, willingly her words to sound more genuine than they'd probably come out.

_This was it_ was all she had time to introspect before they all reached the battle sanctum proper.

"It's about time you guys backed us up!" Rotor shouted through gritted teeth as he physically held off, and then tore apart, two rabid tentacles.

"Sorry Rote, you know how Sal gets in her pep talks sometimes…" Sonic trailed off, a smirk on his face.

Rotor nodded in understanding and then the charge was on, just as a long shadow loomed menacingly over them, eager to end their fates.

* * *

On the sidelines, the big cat unknowingly known to the Freedom Fighters as Big the Cat, had been watching them with fascinated curiosity.

_These people… wow, they can move so fast!_ He thought, looking at the dark blue hedgehog that was currently dashing side to side to avoid attack. _And they're so strong!_ He went on; reflecting on the rabbit woman's daring run-climb of the water demon and the eye-pounding attack thereafter. _And that fox has two tails! Wonderfully unbelievable!_

"Grandpa did tell me that there were strong fellows in the world, ones that fought evil," Big whispered to himself, as he whirred out his fishing line. It had taken him longer than usual before of how petrified he'd suddenly become in the demon's presence [he'd been standing akin to a statue from where he'd entered this scene, bliss his soul], but now, with his eyes anxiously trailing at Froggy, his resolve became ironclad.

Now, all he had to do was cast his line right and catch, save and 'de-possess' his friend Froggy from a gigantic water monster. Simples, right?

_I just have to do just right_, Big thought simply, unaffected by the surrounding cold snap, _and then we can go home, and get some peace and quiet._

"Hah!" he uttered as he threw his lure at Chaos, who at present was busy with multiple attacks from the Freedom Fighters; from Sonic and Sally spiral-kicking one of the rightmost eyes, to Tails and Amy playing a game of distract and pummel, and finally to Antoine and Bunnie who were playing the tactic also, albeit reversed. Bunnie, you see was fisting whatever came her way whilst Antoine thrusted his sword into one of the lower left eyes, and narrowly avoiding being stabbed by Chaos' new tail as he did so.

His aim had been centred on the area just above the main eye [which was still half-blinded by Bunnie's earlier action], as that was where Froggy was currently at. As for what he was doing, well, he _was_ a frog so he was pretty much swimming about, oddly enough looking un-perplexed by his surroundings at all.

Maybe he was sleep-walking or something, Big figured, before then hearing the clicking-like sound of lure against a hard surface.

He'd missed his target completely.

_Oh…_ Big thought disheartened, this just isn't as easy as fishing is. And it obviously wasn't, not when this plane of water was as tall as it was wide [something you wouldn't find in a river or lake], not to mention its alive status!

_Just how did it get so big anyway?_ He thought, mildly confused. _Is it even that same demon that Froggy and I saw the other day now…?_ He thought this, not only because of the very rapid transformation it'd undergone [something he'd never seen before], but because back then the demon had seemed to have some sort of intellect. Now… it was just a raging monster seemingly devoid of such, and one with a very large, scary tail.

_Ugh… I need to get Froggy and me out of here, before we get hit by that thing!_ Big fretted inwardly, feeling the prickling sensation of fear creeping up his spine again.

So, he readied up his casting lure again, let the line settle in the general area through his eye vision and then closed his eyes, something his Grandpa had told him settled and focused the mind. He breathed in and out heavily to steady his nerves, and then in an instant he threw out his lure.

A 'plop' sound came seconds later, confirming that he had hit his target. Big's eyes snapped open to reveal uncanny determination, he knew he could do this. He had to.

As he steadied his hold on the fishing rod, the lure sank into the 'head' of Chaos and narrowly missed Froggy, who was still swimming aimlessly about.

_Oh, hold still Froggy! Don't make this more difficult_, thought the mildly frustrated Mobian Cat.

Thankfully, about a minute of fish line wriggling later, and Big's persistence looked to have paid off as Froggy bit the line. Well, that and maybe the small amount of his favourite food [live insects], which'd been cleverly stickled to the lure with some leftover honey beforehand.

"Good pally, Froggy, hold on nice and tight!" Big said, rather absent mindly to no one but himself, tuning out the battle cries and roars that Knuckles and his friends were making in their fight against the water demon.

And then he heaved, allowing the game tug and pull to begin in earnest.

Chaos Six, being as large as he was wasn't moving from its spot, but frisky-mover Froggy was having none of it. At least, until he smelled what was on the lure, _then_ he bit.

Then he resisted… But Big was having none of that, not this time, and being the stronger of the two persons, pulled out the frog from the beast at blinding speeds and straight into his welcoming arms.

As he hugged Froggy, who was now rather still [and probably confused after all he'd gone through], Big heard an exclaim of joyful surprise from behind them, but he didn't look up.

"Look, tze foule beasts' tail is gone! Marvellous fortune is this on us!"

"No way! I can't believe this!" Robotnik screamed furiously upon seeing Chaos Six sans tail, turning to his nephew on autopilot. "That fat cat just came and _took_ Chaos' tail! Why didn't you do anything?!"

"Umm, s-sire, I believe we were both too b-busy watching _him_ t-thrash the Freedom Fighters to n-notice or c-care," Snively whimpered nervously, covering his face with his hands as he knew what would come next.

"W-WHAT! How _dare_ you throw this back at me as though it's my fault! You're my hired help for a reason you know!" the mad scientist howled back, frothing disgustingly at the mouth.

"Hoo-ray! Froggy, heh heh heh heh, I won't let them take you away again," Big said overjoyed as he swung Froggy around and around in his hands, who was croaking affectionately [presumably].

"I don't know what just happened, but thanks for getting rid of Chaos' tail," called a cool voice, which upon turning around to face its origin, turned out to be none other than one Sonic the Hedgehog.

"Go! Go on and get outta here! We'll do the rest," Sonic ensured with a grin, before assuming a battle stance in Chao Six's direction.

"Oh, okay... Thanks! Come, little buddy. Time to get a move on," Big drawled slowly in his ever-present casual tone, as they left from whence they'd came and off the domed tower.

* * *

"What a sweet lil doll," Bunnie remarked as Big [and Froggy] left.

"That's one way of describing Big, I guess," Knuckles muttered, neither with malice or overabundant joy, prompting Bunnie to raise an eyebrow.

She'd never get to question him that day, though, because of what happened next.

In a delayed reaction on its part, Chaos howled with fiery rage, a sound so piercing that it cracked [or shattered] all glass in the nearby vicinity [which literally was the entire Egg Carrier] and brought everyone to their knees [or in Robotnik and Snively's case, brought their Egg-o-Matic down to ground level]. Thankfully, the illuminated green platform received only a large crack or two, so they all didn't fall into an electrical bath either.

But alias, Chaos Six suddenly stopped its echoing death-squeal and stiffened as its body began to glow in a bathe of eerie colours [the same as the six Chaos Emeralds within its mass].

"Oh no, don't tell that he can use the power of the-" Knuckles began, his voice wavering and his eyes wide with horror at the Eldritch Abomination*.

With sudden furiosity Chaos then unleashed all eight of his tentacles at once like spears all around the arena.

One didn't need to hear the screams to know that our heroes never stood a chance.

Well, Chaos had _most_ of them now in its tightening grasp and begging for mercy, for one Sonic had hastily skidded to the side, and just narrowly scraping past a spear of water to his gut. And looking anxiously around, the cobalt hedgehog saw that only he and two others had escaped unscathed, namely one Miles 'Tails' Prower and Knuckles.

He assumed they'd done a similar antic as to himself [since this had happened in literally five seconds], but looking up he could only feel terror, and not to mention rising anger at what he saw.

The water monster was dangling his comrades, his friends, up in the air like puppets, ones whose screams of dismay sounded out over the moonless night sky, across the surface of a deep, large ocean where no one could hear them.

"Let them go you monster!" he roared, jumping recklessly up in the air with his hands outstretched.

He was too late however, as Robotnik quickly whispered his new order to his new pet.

Chaos Six, then growled once more, before visibly squeezing it's captives to within an inch of their lives with bone-crushing force, and then slammed them down.

All of them were out before they even hit the arena's floor.

Knuckles' face turned into a deep scowl, his fists shaking with unspent emotion, whilst Tails' face became awash with fresh tears and his voice croaked and Sonic's face darkened, drooping nearly to the floor in shame? In anger? In defeat? He felt them all, and it made him sick to his stomach.

"Ah, how poetic," Robotnik taunted with utmost glee as he looked down at his defeated adversaries and the heavens opened, letting down the whipping rain and thunder once more. "Even the weather wishes to commend my victory! You're finished you insufferable blue pin-cushion!" the madman's cackling continued. "And your little friends too! Ha, ha, ha, ha!"

"Sonic, get up!" Tails pleaded, trying to shift the immobile hedgehog from his place on the ground. As he tried so, Knuckles stood fretfully to his side, not sure whether to shout at the annoying teen or punch him in the face, anything to wake him up! He knew he wasn't enough to beat Chaos Six alone, though he'd never admit it to them, _especially_ Sonic.

"You won't stop me from restoring the Master Emerald, you hear me?!" Knuckles shouted angrily at Chaos and Robotnik, needing to let loose some pent-up steam. And as he did so, Tails managed to support a staggering cobalt blue hedgehog to his feet.

"… I'm okie, lil bro," the hedgehog finally murmured, the tiredness in his tone replacing his usual upbeat altitude. "It's just been a long, hard day," he continued, giving a glare at Chaos Six, whom for all its former intellect just sat there and growled, waiting for its next brawl.

"And I presume that you _do_ have a plan?" Knuckles asked sternly, coming on over to the duo.

"Well… no," Sonic said sheepishly, "but hey! The best ideas come out from nothing but experience, right?"

"With you, I'm sure they do," the echidna sarcastically muttered in response, still assuming a fistful standing pose anyway.

"We don't have time to argue guys!" Tails insisted, intervening as his youthful, blue eyes dashed from one to the other. "If we don't stand together, then we'll die alone!"

Knowing that the young [and obviously wiser in some respects] tech wizard was right, the two sighed before promptly nodding their heads and then with a heroic cry, they leapt into the frying pan.

* * *

Knuckles charged at the watery beast, shooting up his arms to block the tentacle strikes, as Sonic, who had let himself hang loosely from a hovering Tails, spin-dashed from his position at Chaos Six's head. And to his frustration missed, when said opponent leapt into the air and caused more shockwaves to ripple across the already, fragile platform – had he not performed a quick corkscrew of a turn at the last second, the cobalt hedgehog would have again ended up in the belly of the beast.

And so with aerial manoeuvres proving ineffective, the crimson echidna slashed at its body, hoping to break it apart piece by piece, even as three tentacles whipped repeatedly over his built body…

"Knuckles!" Tails shouted. "That won't work; he's invulnerable to physical attacks!"

But still the determined warrior continued on, despite seeing that with every piercing slash he made, the watery body regenerated much too fast for him to advance as far as he needed.

"Can't that hothead see that his all-power offensive isn't working?" Sonic groaned irritably from the sidelines. "Man, if only Sal and Rotor weren't out cold, they'd know what to do," he said quietly, casting a forlorn look their way.

"Hey! Whilst I'm dishing it out to this monster, you guys could _attack_ it or something," Knuckles hollered irritably, in a tones doublely potent than Sonic's.

"Err, r-right!" the duo exclaimed, before running side by side at Chaos Six, only to be met with a dozen free tentacles across their own weakening bodies. Whilst Sonic had just enough strength to jump over his lot, Tails' reflexes had slipped him up, literally, allowing his arms to be seized and dragged towards Chaos, whose mouth was wide open and sucking him in!

"Tails! Hang on lil bro!" Sonic shouted anxiously, _I'll save you_, he decidedly left unsaid. So in a desperate vein to save his falling friends' lives, the azure hedgehog growled angrily, etching a determined scowl on his face, before boosting up off the platform with a small gust of wind. He stylishly then landed on a tentacles that had been meant for his head and run up its length towards Chaos' peak, trying his best to tune out Tails' petrifying screams as he was drawn closer to the beast' mouth. _That fear effect is coming back again_, he inwardly groaned. _Not good. I'll have to make… this… quick!_

And with a supersonic boom of speed, he tore right through Chaos' main eye, halting its attack on his remaining allies. It also howled in pain, as one would expect.

"Yeah! Take that you oversized fish!" Sonic taunted it, before turning his attention to Tails, who was barely limping forward at this point. His face looked expectably relieved, though, which warmed the cobalt hedgehog's heart considerably.

"Are you alright?" he asked in concern of his little bro alias.

"Yeah… I'm okie, just a bit woozy from everything today I guess," Tails replied slowly, waving his hand around in a 'no need to fuss over me' like motion, which Sonic respected, and he did look fine, bar the woozy, exhaustion he [and they all] were feeling right now.

"Guys! Let's get him whilst he's distracted!" Knuckles interjected, wanting to at least control the loop than be left out of it, and despite a moment's hesitation with Tails, the duo nodded and ran on over.

With his whirring tails, Tails twirled side to side, dodging attacks, even as a light sheen of cold sweat ran down his forehead, whilst Sonic rived himself into a buzz saw-like ball and launched himself at their common foe.

When the trio's punches connected with the soft watery tissues, they were shocked to see the glaring main eye of Chaos back in its place, as though it hadn't been torn in half just a while before.

"H-he regenerated h-his eye t-that q-quickly?" Tails choked out, staring eye to eye with the beast, in mid-pose, afraid to move and also to continue with what he'd been about to do. It seemed like a stalemate.

"It m-must have g-great e-eyebotics or s-something," Sonic stammered.

"Erm, I-I think y-you mean antibiotics, S-Sonic?"Tails responded.

"Y-yeah, that's w-what I m-meant," was all he said.

"You don't scare me beast," Knuckles announced defiantly. "I _will_ restore the Master Emerald and my island!"

And due to the duo's anxiety, the triple threat failed to notice the shadow looming above their heads until the very last moment. The scorpion-like tail slashed on down, narrowly missing their heads and instead tossing them into the air from the shockwave, allowing the water beast to slam it horizontally into their chests. And when they touched down, they landed on the other edge of the platform with a painful sounding thud, right next to their fainted comrades.

For all their worth, it appeared that Robotnik and Chaos Six had won the day.

* * *

"Ugh," Sonic groaned, leaving a worried Tails to finish what he'd probably been about to say. "Now what do we do?"

"Come on you two, I know you're stronger than this," Knuckles berated harshly. "So get up!"

"Knuckles… dude, I don't know it's escaped your short-sighted attention, but Chaos just shrugs off whatever we throw at him!" Sonic retorted hopelessly, still on his knees.

The echidna looked as if he was about to reply, but then thought better of it and began mumbling instead. "Maybe, we have to deal with him from the inside? And I'm the only one who isn't affected…"

"Knuckles, are you alright?" Tails asked in mild concern, for talking to one's self probably wasn't a good thing.

"Oh, uh, yeah, I'm fine guys," came the hastily reply, "But I think I have a way to defeat Chaos."

A few moments pasted, prompting the cobalt blue hedgehog to speak.

"Well, do you care to enlighten us, Knuckles?"

He nodded. "Okay, now listen up guys, everyone else here but me [for reasons we can't deduce] are affected by close proximity to Chaos, right?" He explained.

"Right," they stated simply at the same time.

"Well, then I believe it is up to me," he stated firmly, and in seeing their mouths about to open in protest, interjected."And me _alone_ – none of you could survive inside Chaos for too long without being rendered mad. It has to be me."

The duo, naturally, did not look convinced.

"And once you're inside him?" Sonic questioned.

"Once inside…" the echidna said, breathing in deeply. "I'll use the Master Emerald to destroy his core, if not the entirety of his being. Either way, he wouldn't be able to regenerate,"

It took only seconds for those words to resonate within the fox and hedgehog's minds, and reach its obvious conclusion. Their eyes widened, and the air seemed to chill just a bit more [if that was even possible at this point].

"Knux, man, that's suicide!" Sonic exclaimed.

"And every mission you take as a freedom fighter isn't?" was the simple, flat retort.

"Did you hear what I said? I said _suicide_, ya know, you'd die!" the hedgehog shouted, ignoring Knuckles' statement, as he waved his arms about in exasperation.

"Also Knuckles, what if Chaos _absorbs_ the Master Emeralds energies instead? Because then we'd all be doomed!" Tails inputted fearfully.

".. If that happens, then yes, we'd surely be finished, but didn't Robotnik say that Chaos would be 'perfect' when he gets that last Chaos Emerald anyway? What I mean is, whether it's the Master Emerald or Silver Emerald, Chaos would become too strong for us," he cocked a look Sonic's way as he continued. "Since you wouldn't be able to turn Super without the emeralds."

"So, the possibility of failure is very high whichever we try," Tails murmured.

"Exactly," Knuckles calmly stated, eyes closed and arms folded across his chest.

"Wow… that was pretty wise Knucklehead," Sonic complimented.

The guardian didn't let it show, but as he grunted an inaudible response, a small smirk rose in his subconscious. _Finally they're taking me, a Guardian, seriously!_ He thought brightly, before he willed his nerves to harden, like steel.

"You sure about this Knuckles…?" Sonic felt the need to ask one last time, his tone solemn.

The guardian in question was staring down Chaos Six, who'd been silently looking at them and making scathing growls, as he held onto his makeshift Master Emerald Shard necklace.

_But now I need to end this. Whatever road it leads me…_

And with a responding nod, the plan was on.

"Tails, can you distract him?" was the echidna's next firm utterance.

"I'm on it!" the youthful fox said, taking a hovering position in front of the beast.

"And you, I can't believe I'm saying this but," Knuckles said, slapping himself in the head. "But I want _you_ to spin me around real fast so I can get in there, even if I am a better swimmer than you."

"Oki-hey! You know how I feel about water!"

"I know, that's why I said it you Blue-Showoff," Knuckles grunted through a small smirk. "Now, let's get going!"

And so they did, Tails swooped down high and low in a circular arc around the arena, in order to shake off, as well as avoid the ever-present tentacles of Chaos, jabbing at him like jousting lances. Knuckles, meanwhile was being thrown around and around by a slightly bemused hedgehog, and it was all he could take to will down the contents of his stomach…

But in a flash, Sonic, having reached a decent enough spin speed, let the echidna go at a speed of at least forty-fifty mph, who then twisted in the air in a drill-like manoeuvre before puncturing Chaos Six's body.

Inside, oxygen was not a problem, for the Guardian had self-taught himself to be as resilient as possible to dangers of earth, water and sky, so he hold his great for far greater lengths than most men [or women] could. Kicking his feet and front-crawling with his arms to get deeper inside [since he'd landed just short of Chaos' centre], in a mass that was heavy and full of vast negative energies was the predominant worry on Knuckles' mind for now.

And as he etched closer to the glowing, pink fleshy core, Knuckles clutched his Master Emerald necklace fiercely tight, as they too began to glow a light sea green. Not only that, but he was finding it ever more difficult to concentrate as his vision became hazy, and his pulse was increasing steadfast. And a tingling sensation was beginning in his fingers as well.

_What…? What is this feeling I'm having?_ Knuckles thought, perplexed, but oddly calm in the wake of such a discovery. _It's… as though… something is rising to the surface from within me?_

His fingers then felt something other than excited tingles, something soft and gooey, and it came to no surprise of the echidna's eyes that it was Chaos' core brain. He had arrived at his destination. Now, he just had to set his plan into motion successfully without a hitch.

So, grabbing his necklace of shards, he closed his eyes and focused on his mind, the thread of chaos that connected him to the Master Emerald, and willed it to help him.

What happened next, no one could've imagined.

Seemingly in an instant, the excitable sensation within his body shifted, and dark emerald wisps of energy secreted over the crimson echidna's body in tune with the spinning light patterns from the shards. Knuckles' eyes become slightly more triangular than elongated spheres, like diamonds, almost emerald-like, in shape and colour.

The sight of which, made him look like a glowing pillar of light to the shocked faces of Sonic and co [the others of whom had been warily waking up since Knuckles entered Chaos Six]. It was a sight of awe that was for sure.

Then, there was a howling scream, but it wasn't from Chaos… for the powerful sensation had just ruptured throughout Knuckles' entire body, from the bones, to the nervous system and to the flesh. It, by all logical means should've caused the echidna to suffer a biological meltdown. But it didn't. Instead, it was merely a prelude to a massive flux of white light, which blinded the irises of everyone present, leaving them gasping for what the end result would be.

* * *

In a blinding world of white, Robotnik, Snively and the Freedom Fighters felt no pain, only the soft, feathery-like breeze of a subtle wind, and there was no sound at all. It was though their part of the world had been enveloped in a cocoon, cutting them off from the rest. It was strangely only mildly disorienting, but they wouldn't need to fret for much longer, for it went almost as soon as it'd come.

And when the luminance finally subsided, and the skies were revealed once more, now just grey non-stormy clouds, only one being remained in the blast's epicentre.

"KNUCKLES!" the Freedom Fighters cried out, rushing on over to him. The crimson flesh was battered, bruised and unmoving.

Rotor quickly tried for a pulse on his right wrist and a heartbeat on the Guardian's chest.

The next few moments trickled by tensely for the other standing Freedom Fighters, who had now regained their breath, and who also sported a few battle-worn bruises.

"Well, what's the verdict Rote'…?" Sonic whispered tentatively.

The purple walrus's head rose and he quickly glanced through all their anxious eyes, an indecipherable expression on his face.

"He's alive guys, don't worry!" he exclaimed, flipping from indescribable to excitable relief in two seconds flat.

"Thank goodness for that," Sally breathed, saying what everyone else had been, the had-been knot in her throat now untwisting and fading like a bad dream.

They'd only known him for near two years, but Knuckles' death would not only had been emotionally distressing for them [and in the middle of a mission, that would be disastrous], but that'd also, maybe selfish on her part, have left them with the duty of the Floating Island, the Master Emerald [shards] and whatever other secrets the place had.

"Hey guys…" drawled a breezy southern voice. "Where in tarnation did that Chaos go?"

"Huh, what do you mean Bunnie-" Amy Rose began, perplexed and down with a little case of the shivers, before she saw it, or to be more precise, the lack of 'it'. The others noticed it immediately forthwith, for the arena was empty.

Chaos Six had, it seemed, been completely obliterated by the unexpected attack. There wasn't even any ascending vapour trails that one must've expected to see from such a scorching blast, but then, the problem came when it came to them the bystanders. Why hadn't they felt any heat, or moreover been obliterated along with the former water beast?

It was a head-scratcher indeed, and one that only Knuckles could likely answer when he awoke, which was mildly irritating to the confused, but awed blue blur.

"No way! I can't believe this! What did that HIPPY RAT DO TO MY CHAOS!" roared a familiar dictator, causing any rising hope the gang had for the attack to have mimed or outright dealt with their sworn enemy, to be swiftly quelled.

"Umm, sire-" came the slimy voice of Snively. Yes, luck really was being unfair to the heroes today wasn't it?

"ARGHHHHHHH!"

"Sire! There's a great hole in the Egg Carrier!" the punt sized lackey squealed loudly, finger pointing erratically at the aforementioned.

"There's a what-" Robotnik murmured, not quite getting it at first. "AH! Oh no, they broke my beautiful airship too!" Then he did, as did his enemies.

For there was a large hole in the ship where the explosion of chaotic light had occurred, a spidery crater in the tower's centre, and it went all the way through the vessel, cremating the engine.

"Je ne peux pas le croire... Non, non! This is thee end of us all as we do know it… I had so much to live for left," Antoine whimpered, right on cue. Though, this time the whole gang weren't that far behind him, mainly because the glass panels were now beginning to fall into the abyss below.

"Until we meet again Freedom Fighters!" Robotnik announced venomously, before jetting hastily from the scene, pesky nephew in tow.

"Stop! Come back here Robuttnik!" Sonic shouted, legs gearing into a speedy figure of eight in order to pursue. That was until, Bunnie grabbed him to halt him, and so let the madman live for another day as he vanished into the dark clouds below.

"Move, move, MOVE!" Sally commanded swiftly, leading the way. The staircase was likely to not hold for long, so in a quick-fire decision, the resistance leader then jumped off the platform's edge, aiming to hit the decking below without too much pain.

Her boots hit its flat surface with a thud, sending a sharp spike of pain up her ankles. She prayed that it wasn't a break, a sprain she could deal with, but a break would make her excess baggage. No matter how much she knew her friends would say otherwise, they already had Knuckles to carry without her being added to it. No, she'd just have to try and-

"Hey, are you alright Aunt Sal?" Tails asked, trying his best to prop her up on his shoulder, despite their differing heights. Still, Sally obliged him the opportunity.

"Thanks Tails, but I'm fine, really. I can still walk," she said calmly, but definitively, doing the deed to prove it. The movement was a little shaky, but Sally soon got back into her stride.

As for the others, Bunnie had grabbed Knuckles with one hand and Antoine, leaving a speeding Sonic to carry Amy, much to her happy bemusement, and trail Rotor along by his free right hand. They'd all landed pretty well considering the sudden break for it, though Rotor did look a little sea green. The important thing was that they'd escaped the collapsing tower of luminance, now they just had one more thing to answer:

Just how were they going to escape this sinking ship?

* * *

_*Play Sonic Adventure – Egg Carrier ~A Song That Keeps Us On The Move*_

"What are we to be doing ma princesse? We need to get off this ship!" Antoine enquired desperately as he fidgeted erratically, despite Bunnie's reassuring shoulder grasp to render him calmer.

All eyes turned to the revel princess, their comrade, their leader and friend, hopeful for some ingenious plan that would save their bacon for at least another day.

"NICOLE, can you scan the Egg Carrier for any viable lifeboats, preferably not locked away?" Sally diligently asked, turning away so as to not meet the eyes of her friends.

More fleeting moments passed, and one Amy Rose swore that she saw the clouds above start to rise. It looked like they were fast running of time. Still, she turned back to her former 'love rival' and comrade, hoping that if all hope was lost, then she'd be able to speak to Amber, Lisa and Zack one last time.

_I'm so sorry I missed your birthday, Zack, but I left on a mission with my old friends, defeated the monster and now we're going to die!_ She thought wildly.

Sally then turned back around, NICOLE no longer in her palm.

The downcast and frustration apparent on Sally's face said it all. And it was then, only then, that they realised that perhaps they expected too much of her. They were only Mobian after all, abundant with their own weaknesses and strengths. Perhaps the situation really was out of their hands this time.

"I'm sorry guys… but there isn't any conveniently placed lifeboats on hand, in fact, there isn't any on board at all. Looks like Robotnik was adamant he'd never need them," she said solemnly, slumping her shoulders down in failure.

"Don't frown Sally-girl, we aren't super-mobian," Bunnie comforted her with a hug. "We can't expect everything to go our way. This is not your fault, okay?"

"I know Bunnie, I know… I just hate feeling _helpless_ like this! It's unbecoming of me," Sally sighed, venting her frustrations.

"Hmm," Sonic hummed thoughtfully, stroking his fingers over his chin. "I've got it!"

"You do? Well spill the beans then Sonic," Rotor piped up, a slight return of hopeful twinkle in his eyes.

"Well… It won't save us all I'm afraid, but at least two of us will make it," he said, eyes glistening with determination, even despite his upcoming demise, at Amy and Tails.

"What, u-us?!" The pair exclaimed at once, shocked.

"Yes, you two," Sonic replied simply before resting his left hand on Amy's left shoulder and the other on Tails' right, before looking the pair square in the eye. "You're the youngest of us all, you _have _to make it. Whether you carry on the fight or stay and live the rest of your lives peacefully in this city or elsewhere, it matters not; we won't hold it against you," he continued affirmably. "None of us deserved the life of a freedom fighter, and that especially rings true to you two. Just promise me one thing," the cobalt blue hedgehog said, his tone withering with sadness, as he closed his eyes.

_*Play LOST – Journey's End, New Beginning or Oceanic 815* _

"Anything Sonic…" the pair murmured, moisture glistening in Tails' eyes, whereas tears had already began to stream down Amy's scrunched-up face.

"Hey, no tears lil' bro, or you'll make me cry. You too, Amy! You know how I hate to do that," he jokingly half-scolded, half-chucked through shining eyes.

"It's not cool, right?" the young fox chuckled in response to his best friend, the only one he'd ever had, and probably his last.

"R-right, naturally!" Sonic joked back, though he didn't laugh this time. For what did he have to laugh about? He and his friends were [most likely] going to die and he'd never see two of his other friends again, not in this lifetime at least. It was gnawing at his mind and heart.

_Life really isn't fair_, he thought, with a slight touch of finality.

"So, w-what did y-you wanna tell u-us, S-Sonic?" Amy asked, clutching the helm of her red dress tightly, whilst trying her best to sniffle back the tears, and failing miserably.

"I-I…" choked an uncharacteristic Sonic from the norm, "I wanted to say this," he said as he caught the two in a tight hug.

"Just live you two, _just live_, and be happy. Look out for one another, and all that jazz," he concluded, unable to continue anymore, be it from sheer emotion or to save what rep he had, even a mixture of both. His gathered friends figured it was the later, though.

"That was beautiful sugah-hog," Bunnie murmured, her glumness carrying on the strengthening winds around them as her eyes began to water. It looked like she was gonna lose a family all over again, and it broke her heart.

"Don't worry darlin's, it'll take more than this to do in Auntie Bunnie, and I'll be darned if I let anything happen to the others," the rabbit said through her tears as she hugged the duo, all the while praying that this wouldn't turn out to be a lie when all was said and done, she weren't immortal after all. Still, deep down, she knew they'd probably figured the ruse from offset, they weren't stupid. And that made the feeling worser.

* * *

The coyote Frenchman was next up, kneeling down at the pair so they of a level height, before placing his hands, wet as they were from the weather, onto their shoulders.

"C'est un destin, but you go on younglings. Go forth and make this poor imbecile proud, hear me you do?" Antoine articulated glumly, not quite crying, but his sincere parting words meant a lot nevertheless. The pair nodded and were herded to the one remaining person, and for Tails at least, one that would very hard to let go of.

All it took was one look from Tails, and the emotional barrier the Princess kept up, for battle and for more personal reasons, came down in an uncontrollable stream. Tails had to help wipe them away from her eyes because of the sheer volume of it all. The young fox had never seen Sally cry, well he had, but not _really_ cry, cry, so it should have surprised him, but it didn't.

She was only Mobian, just like the rest of them, and he'd come to realise that whenever they weren't in Robotropolis [or other battlefield territory], shortly after his and Sonic's arrival into their lives, that she let herself relax and the motherly bond they'd developed was proof of that. Sally wasn't a cold-hearted person, not at all, the burden of being the leader of a resistance group just meant that she to withdraw herself sometimes, and he didn't hold that against her, never had, never will.

Still, it didn't half constrict his heart, not only with overwhelming despair, but with anger at the situation, only he and Amy would [likely] survive this night, and that just wasn't fair at all.

After moments of quiet finality, like the fast approaching curtains of a theatrical final act, Sally finally spoke to the budding pair on bent knees.

"I… never thought that it would come to this, but it has, and I want you to know, _both_ of you, that I believe in you and wherever we go from this realm, that we'll be watching over you," she said in a small, but gentle voice, the moonlight from a break in the dark clouds making her azure eyes dazzle with a warm radiance.

"Tails… my darling nephew, continue to work hard and one day I'm sure you'll surpass even Rotor!" she lightly chuckled, earning her a comedic 'Hey!'from said walrus. The goofy smile and wink he gave his prestige made it clear that he'd taken it in his stride, though, and probably even believed in it, hoped for it even.

"I love you…" were the last words she spoke to Tails, hugging him tightly before finally physically letting go of one part of her make-shift family, though the mental process would take a whole lot longer, if not forever to get over.

Amy was next up, her eyes bulging when the Princess hugged her of all people. Still, despite their differences, she would miss Sally; her new maturity had opened her mind to all possibilities, including that of friendship with the rebel leader. She was a woman too, so they must've some things in common, she figured. Sadly, it looked like they [and the world] would never know.

"I know we've had our differences in the past but… It's been real nice; having you let us into your new life, meeting Amber and everyone," she said sincerely. "I hope… you stay true to who you are, and continue to strive for your dreams, whatever they be, for that is what makes you, _you_," she restated. "Take care of each other and lead great lives…" Sally shut her eyes after that, emotionally unable to continue.

The scene was filled to the brim with vivacious grief, like an early morning grave wake, a barrel of wild feelings, fleeting regrets and fear of the unknown. No one said anything more for a few moments more as the moon was masked by the clouds once again.

* * *

"Oh no, the ship is losing altitude, and fast! You better get going guys," Rotor fretted anxiously, yet the shininess in his eyes was no longer filled with much hope... as he saw the clouds race towards the heavens. He knew the time for farewells was over.

"Hurry, Tails! Take Amy and get out of here!" Sonic commanded.

"Right! Let's get going Amy," Tails said politely, but warily, to the rosette hedgehog, who just nodded and held onto tight to both his hands in anticipation, one she never wanted to come.

"See you…" Tails whispered to them, he knew it sounded utterly pathetic, but it was all the young fox could choke out as his twin tails began to lift him upwards and he could see everyone looking at Amy and him, as though this really was goodbye.

_This can't be happening… This can't be happening…_ echoed like a mantra through his mind, and he hoped that he even had enough strength to get him and Amy back to ocean level, yet alone Station Square a few miles away. His muscles were aching all over, and it was slowly seeping to his tails too.

Still, he willed himself on, they and Amy were counting on him, less this'd all be for nothing, he thought finally with renewed determination.

So with a quick burst of speed, one Tails Miles Prower and Amy Rose left the surrounding vicinity of the nose-diving Egg Carrier, which now had several electrical fire sparks shooting out here and there. The duo silently prayed that the airship wouldn't explode on impact, if only because…

"We should get going, Tails," murmured the evenly toned Amy, the voice of reason, moments later as the Egg Carrier slipped below the cloud line and out of sight. And with a simple nod he did just that, speeding off in the direction of Station Square. It's not as if they wanted to torture themselves waiting for a resounding crash sound.

As they did, the moonlight scattered from behind the clouds, and had the Egg Carrier still have been where it was, the persons present on it may've noticed a tiny watery remnant sliding down its face and over the Robotnik Insignia, and growing…

* * *

XXXXX

**Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream**

XXXXX

* * *

And thus ends the eightieth chapter of this story arc!

* * *

Eldritch Abomination's* are beings that defy all natural law, as humans understand it. It is this that makes them abominable and it this that reduces to gibbering madness all but the strongest of those who encounter them.

And there you have it; Chaos 6 was wiped out by an explosive attack by Knuckles, and the Freedom Fighters [and you readers] can breathe a sigh of relief that this will be the last time the 'fear effect' will appear.

Sorry that this was so _long_, but I wanted to strike home that Chaos 6 was a force to be reckoned with [and one that had it not have been for Knuckles' latent Chaos powers releasing, would never have been defeated by the FFs].

The battle location was also a hindrance [as Chaos 6 was too big to be a real threat around the entire Egg Carrier methinks]. Tis interesting how Cthulhu I made him actually. Heh. Totally wasn't that intentional.

Oh, Chapters 1-4 have been edited again [with 4 being the most streamlined] too. Hopefully making more sense in the long run!

Now, there are five short chapters to go until the endgame, one that is to go out with a BANG! I doubt I can get there for the end of 2009, but in the beginning of 2010 this story will surely be finished at last?!

_[Oh, and I messed up last chapter, Robotnik snatched three Chaos Emeralds meaning he'd have them all! So now, it's just two. Hooray for sloppy author edits? Lol.]_

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I hope you enjoyed this, and the chapters so far, any comments or ratings would be nice and appreciated! ^-^

'**Bomb Alert' is the next chapter.**

Take care ya'll ***smiley face***


	22. Bomb Alert

**Disclaimer**: _I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "**Change The World**" by ARTIST Dream

* * *

**CHAPTER 20: Bomb Alert**

[_TAILS POV_]

We'd been travelling for I'd guess three minutes, through the dispersing clouds up here in the dark blue skies when we first saw it; above us the moon hung in the air like a shining pearl. Had we'd not endured the night we'd had, I would've deemed it a perfect pleasant setting and a joyous smile would've been drawn on my face.

But we hadn't had a great night, not in the slightest; Amy and I had cuts and bruises all over, it was a miracle my chest wound hadn't reopened, though, all that didn't seem to bother Amy and Crystal her Flicky, who were both asleep against my chest. I didn't blame them, as my tails were aching like mad, and I hoped beyond the stars that we'd reach land soon, so we could just… fall… asleep.

"Hmm, Tails…?" came a murmur from the rose-tinted hedgehog. Okay, she wasn't asleep then, but she did sound sleepy.

"Yeah, Amy?" I replied warmly.

"… Are we anywhere near land yet you think?" she asked politely.

_Hmm, unfortunately I don't have an atlas of the seas in my head, Amy_, is what my tired and irritable mind wanted to voice, but I ignored it and instead replied with the simple truth.

"I don't know, Amy," I said slowly, thoughtfully, and I didn't even need to look down at her to know that a saddened smile had crossed her features, a year wasn't enough to forget Amy's common mannerisms; when met with the sad truth she'd usually politely succumb to silence.

_Not that different from me either then_, I thought with a sigh, as I inwardly began to hum a tune I'd heard on the radio last month. What I could remember of it after this long day anyway.

_When all alone in my chair, I just go about wishing_

_I wanna be strong, I really wanna be trusted_

_When all alone in my bed, I just go about yearning_

_I wanna be cool; I also wanna be like him_

_But that's not something I can do so easily_

_This is not simply my way, my style_

_Gotta get a hold of my life_

_I wanna fly high_

_So I can reach the highest of all the heavens_

_Somebody will be waiting for me so,_

_I have got to fly higher…_

I wager that it was another two minutes of gentle silence before I first saw land on the horizon.

_Heh, looks like we'll get to rest very soon_, I thought gladly, _thank goodness!_

Even under the cover of darkness one could still make out the abundance of luscious green grasses and moss, as well as the chocolate-browns of the towering mountains, not to mention the lone cabin on the cliff top, there was only one place that this could've been…

"The Mystic Ruins!" I exclaimed, glad to be home [well, my former home anyway]. I shook Amy in my excited state to ruse her out of whatever slumber she'd fallen into.

"Huh? You don't have to shout Amber…" Amy murmured, rubbing her emerald eyes. "Wait, did you just say the Mystic Ruins... Tails?" she continued, her voice growing more hopeful with every word.

"The very same," I said, the hopefulness infectious. "Brace yourself for landing!"

"Ok-kkay!" was all she managed to utter before I darted downward at an angle. She didn't scream like the first time, though, she knew I was very careful and well-versed in landing by now. Besides she had to hold on tight to Crystal who was sleeping through it all.

And as the ground came to greet us, the cool misty air under this starlight caressingly brushed past our faces, as well as seeping through my white chest fur. It stung a little, but I bared it, for I could finally rest once we got to my house, the barren cliff top only a foot or two below us now.

In a space of about ten seconds or less, I felt the [mostly] flat, solid rock beneath my feet as a small weight lifted itself off of me.

Finally this day is over with, I thought, yawning out loud as I took small steps towards the plane garage. The Tornado 2 should be in there now, I thought glumly, recalling its burnt-out husk back on the Egg Carrier, the latter now a similar fate [I presumed].

"The door's… just round to… the left," I drawled ever more sleepily to Amy who was standing a feet or so ahead, looking at me with a curious, and if I'm not fully out of it, a worried expression as well?

_Why would… that be… I'm perfectly fine…_ I retorted within the recesses of my own mind.

I then felt the irresistible urge to halt my movement and the world began to spin [or was it me?] I didn't get much time to react however, as for the first time today I saw blackness meshed with streaks of hot pink instead of white, and that was that.

* * *

The next thing I felt was warmth and my head on something soft.

_Ah, this is heavenly_, I mused as I lay there, selfishly feeling like remaining there for days to come, if not forever. A pleasurable purr came out as I wrapped what I deduced to be one of my blankets around me tighter, containing the warmth.

_Oh, how I'll never take you for granted again!_ I promised myself. _Not after last night…_ Just thinking about it caused a shiver down my spine, and it was that action which then made me mildly wonder something…

"Aye…" I slurred, upon strain-fully opening one eye. "How'd I get here?" I questioned out loud, upon opening both irises, the windows of self.

Here being in my workshop's living room, a place I confess I never slept in that much, even despite its three burgundy-coloured sofas, arranged in a U arc towards the world map. Though, I was curled up on the leftmost one of the outer two [nearer the front door] and under my blanket so there was a first I supposed!

With my blood pumping more smoothly around my body I began to feel more and more awake, the previous spell of sleepy grandeur [sadly] fading fast. Lying back with a sigh my thoughts then drifted to Amy, she must be here because she brought me in, though, just how she'd gotten in here puzzled me.

Letting my eyes wander they quickly scoured my map of Mobius, across South Island, where me and Sonic first met Sally and the others and also where our main fight against Robotnik took place at present. _At least till Chaos_, I shakily added. Then there was West Island, where Sonic and I met and also where my first memory traced back to…

_I wonder if Sonic ever told the others that I'd had this map on me for as long as I could recall?_

It was then I heard something, but it was too quiet for me to link it to something specific, so I gave up trying – it was probably just a bird taking off or something.

_I must've left the door unlocked or something,_ I deduced after another full moment, _otherwise I don't know how Amy could've gotten in here._

_I'll have to ask her when she_- I began voicing to myself, only to be interrupted by a distinct whirring sound – _wakes up? _

"Amy, is that you?" I called out, looking towards the source of the sound, the red, wooden door on the rightmost wall to me – it lead to my kitchen, but that didn't sound like the gas cooker or microwave… Odd, it _does_ sound familiar, though.

"I-I'm f-fine Tails, how a-are you?" came a shrill, shaky voice. _So unlike her._ "But _don't_ come in," fired the demanding tone, which I could then only indentify as one Amy Rose.

Natural curiously raised, I hopped out of my make-shift bed and take slow, steady steps towards the aforementioned door. _Just what are you up to Amy? It's only the kitchen area…_

"Amy, what's wrong," "You sound

"N-no, n-no, don't come in!" "Just give me five minutes, 'kay?"

"Ok-ay, five minutes and counting," I said casually with a shrug, getting out my communicator which served as my own all-in-one PA device, master clock included. The thought: w_ere all girls this weird?_ soon fired around my head, but I quickly shook it loose, I had more important things to do, I reasoned, than find a girl friend anyway.

At 04: 57 [and 13 nanoseconds] into the countdown, my kitchen door handle, smoothed natural wood, gently swung open, and there in the doorway stood Amy, who had a sheepish look upon her rested face. My eyebrow rose at the fact that she was wearing the same red dress as the day before. _Has she not changed?_ Not that I wore anything myself, out of personal choice, but still, I knew enough about hygiene being a junior… designer? Scientist? My mind couldn't decide on one, but despite that lone second or two she'd caught the inquisitive glance too.

_Oh boy, I hope she doesn't shout at me now_, I thought fearfully, knowing how well she was with a hammer, not to mention all the other skills she'd spoken about two days ago…

Thankfully, all she did was strode on over to the middle of the room whilst shyly half-covering her face, trying to disguise her expression. The rosette hedgehog stood in front of the patio doors leading out to the small, summer conservatory, just a small number of steps in front of me.

She took in a deep breath and then spoke in a tinier voice than her own, twiddling her fingers together whilst doing so and eyes downcast.

"I suppose you wanna know why I was in there and didn't want you coming in, huh?" she asked meteorically, at least, I made it so but not answering so she'd feel inclined to continue.

"Well… You see, my dress was all dirty from yesterday and I didn't want to go to Amber's to get changed before I'd cleaned it so… I burrowed your washing machine! I'm sorry," she said hastily, apologetically whilst nodding profusely.

It was then I realised why she hadn't wanted me coming in… causing my face to grow hot. _And a red flush to appear no less_, I groaned, embarrassed.

I soon wrung that out of my system, though, and allowed a friendly smile to grace my features.

"That's no problem Amy, no problem at all," I said sincerely. "This is my home and thus is open to all my friends."

"T-thank you, Tails," Amy said strongly, more like her usual self, returning a closed-eyed smile.

* * *

Our eyes diluted and became serious, knowing full well what we had to do today…

"Amy, after we make some breakfast you know what we gotta do-" I lamented, before she cut me off.

"Yes, Tails, I know," she said, equally as solemn. "But do you think I can check-in on Amber and everyone first…? I have some things I need to sort out there," she continued gently, hoping I wouldn't be offended. And I wasn't. "I'll catch up you up, okay?"

"Okay, then that's settled then," I stated, knowing that Amy wouldn't simply abandon the others and so would stay true to her word. I couldn't see her ever leaving Sonic behind at the very least, not that she didn't care about the rest, of course. "Let's eat up before we head-out."

Two bowls of cereal, two pieces of fruit and two glasses of drink later, and then we were off.

I had brought up the simple plan of me flying u both into the heart of the city, but Amy wasn't hadn't been having any of it.

"You're still worn out form yesterday!" she'd said. _No I wasn't…_ had rung through my mind, but I hadn't bothered to voice it, since Amy nearly always won our disagreements. I'd sighed and relented, so we got the train into the capital instead.

And I hadn't been lying about my state either, my wounds weren't hurting today, and they looked more faded. _And hopefully they'll remain that way_, I thought. _Still, at least Chaos is gone. _

_

* * *

  
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**STATION SQUARE / SOUTHERN SECTOR / 10.21 AM**

It was mid-morning by the time we reached the southern sector, outside the train station, and it was then we noticed how unusually crowded it was.

_Huh? Shouldn't many of these people be at their place of work by now?_ I thought confused.

"Let's make our way to the front Tails, and see what the commotion is!" Amy exclaimed enthusiastically, obviously curious to boot, before powerfully pushing past the crowd and making gaps where there hadn't been moments before.

_It looks like she's no stranger to dispersing crowds somehow_, I thought merrily, before following her trail.

When we [at last] made it to the front, we both let out gasps of mild relief, for a few miles out to sea [and floating on it] was none other than the Egg Carrier vessel.

_It's still mostly intact_, I deduced from what I could, _but that hole must be letting water in vast amounts, so it won't have the buoyancy to remain afloat for long..._ I told Amy as such, and she said that'd she'd be back as _soon_ as she could, putting great emphasis on 'soon', and then without a fuss darted in and out of the now dispersing crowd, disappearing from sight.

_Looks like this is old news now_, I thought to that, but then it hit me again.

It was still intact, so they could definitely still be _alive_.

_If they didn't fall off that is_, I thought gravely, as I turned away from the city's edge, inwardly debating on whether to attempt a flyover or wait for Amy regardless.

* * *

Suddenly, screams broke out across the southern square as an egg-shaped shadow flow over us and landing in the square's centre. Some just ran away, and some, like me, stood rooted to the spot, wondering what was going to happen next.

"Robotnik…" I breathed, making sure to hide myself behind one of the intrigued couples. "What is he doing here?" _And does he know what happened to Sonic and the others?_

It wouldn't take long for us all to discover the truth, however, as the Egg-o-Matic flying man began to speak.

"I'm finished here," the madman muttered incoherently, seemingly to none but himself. "Chaos was defeated. And now my Egg Carrier is ruined," he continued quietly, it sounded quite remorseful actually.

But then, with a maestro-like flair of his arms and a maddening glint in his eyes, he boomed his announcement over the square with utmost glee:

"No matter, I will just destroy Station Square anyway!"

_Or not!_

"Oh no, you don't Robotnik!" I hollered, bursting forward with a gust of speed up and over the panicking crowd, hands open in order to swipe the controller he'd produced in his hands.

"One of you actually _survived_ the crash of my…" he began in irritable shock, not noticing my approach.

Then his ever glasses-covered eyes twirled in my direction. "Oh, it's just the little brat…" he said offhandedly, as though I was no bother at all. _And he's probably right too_, I thought, _I'm nothing without the others… and Sonic._

"Leave your friends to _die_ on my Egg Carrier, eh, my, what a spiteful 'friend' you are!" He taunted to my anguished face. It sent a fire raging within me that I didn't know was even there, and I darted down at him fists outstretched.

_There's no way he's getting away with that, or destroy this city!_ I vowed.

Unfortunately, I was too late and he happily pressed down on the controller's button, no doubt activating some weapon nearby… and true to that, a loud, rumbling sound coursed from behind us all.

Gazing out to the ocean, my eyes only needed to see the shape of the weapon to know what it was; one that was a tall cylinder, had curved standing stilts and a pointed cone on top. As it edged slightly out of the Egg Carrier, the Robotnik insignia was also visible.

_He's going to wipe out the entire city with one missile_, I thought, both impressed and revolted at the sheer technological power and deed it was about to carry out.

And within seconds it was air borne and cruising right over our heads; as Robotnik hovered over the ocean's edge, and I'd just let it happen. I couldn't move, sheer nerves having paralysed me on the spot.

_Any second now it's going to explode and then we'll all be dead! Some freedom fighter I am!_ I agonised, scrunching up my eyes as the shiver of incoming death took over me.

Two more seconds pasted and then three, four, five, six, seven, eight… and nothing. No explosion, no fearful screams, just an abyss of silence.

_Was it over that quickly?_ I thought surprisingly. _But then I'm still thinking aren't I? And I can still feel my body… _

_

* * *

  
_

Sensing something amiss, I slowly but surely opened slits in the hands covering my face to allow me to see my surroundings; it was then that I released the breath I'd been holding.

Around me everything was like it had been, however many seconds ago, leaving me [and the equally confused citizens dotted around me] to wonder what'd become of the missile.

"Argh!" came a familiar voice, filled with fierce loathing. "No… It was a dud," he said awkwardly and empty of confidence, before erupting in defiance. "I can't believe this!"

I was already hovering myself and was ready to intercept the villain, when his Egg-o-Matic rocketed above our heads.

"I'll go and deal with this myself, then you shall all see the light. Ha, ha, ha, h a, ha!"

And with that maniac declaration, he flew off north and over the buildings, his destination obvious. The frantic bustle around me told me that the populace were well aware of their upcoming fate, and not only that, but I could a news crew van leaving the local newspaper stand and taking off in the general direction of where the missile had landed.

It, for some reason, reminded me of a saying I'd heard once [though, I couldn't remember the how, when or even who specifics], that _order came from chaos_. It was a fascinating stance, but I had no time right now, so I hastily shook these philosophical thoughts from the forefront.

"Oh, no! I need to get to that missile before he detonates it," I voiced out loud, thinking quick on my feet that the authorities would probably take too long, before following Robotnik's trail through the air.

As the warming morning air filtered through my copter-mimicking tails and over my fur, as I looked for the stand-out Egg-o-Matic vehicle, I settled back into my thoughts to calm my stinging nerves of anxiety and relax me some.

_So the fate of Station Square depends on me, huh…_ was the realisation that I instead found, and it frightened me to my bones. I had no super special skills [flying was hardly that] and I was still inexperienced in the field, for I'd never been out by myself without support…

_So how can I hope to be a big hero now, right now?_ My woeful, anxious thoughts continued, my eyes beginning to water as the responsibility continued to pile on my small shoulders.

_Sonic… Sally… Bunnie... everyone, I need you!_

Okay, talking to myself _wasn't_ helping as I figured it would, so I occupied the time I had preciously and continued scouting the skies for an egg mobile.

_Did he go down so he could weave in and out of the alleyways?_ I wondered fearfully.

A glint of sunlight rippled in the near distance, causing me to squeeze my eyes tight to direct my gaze there. And no, it wasn't a helicopter or even a plane [thank goodness!], for the gleam was illuminating a small egg shape, still in the air.

_Bingo! Maybe hope isn't lost after all!_

And as I increased my energy expenditure and began closing the gap between Robotnik and me, melancholy feelings arose.

_I've changed a lot since I started hanging out with Sonic_, I reminisced, still remembering that day where'd saved me, still fond and vivid in my minds-eye. And I knew this was true, I was such a shy and quiet thing back then, now, I had friends, a real home and a cause to fight for.

I'd grown stronger physically too; I could never fly for more than about twenty seconds off my own merit before meeting Sonic, Sally and the others and now look at me, people carrier and near hour long, capable flight periods. That, for all it was worth made me smile inside.

_And to think things only began four years ago…_ I thought in amazement, in what surely _wasn't_ a modest statement. What nine year old could say they've been on such adventures, fraught such adversity with close friends on an [almost] daily basis and only got stronger and wiser for it [for I had no scars, physical or mental, much to show for it]? _Probably not many [at all]…_

Then, with the raw power of Rotor's pitching throws and Sonic travelling at the speed of light, it hit me. I was growing up, and so as well as getting stronger, more mature and the rest, I would also have to set out on my own one day, be it first in battle or in life.

_Maybe… I should give this solo thing a go, just this once,_ I conceded unexpectedly, my heart thumping hard in my chest_._ _And what choice did I have otherwise?_ It was truly do or die time.

And so, overtaking the half distance mark between me and Robotnik, I grasped the weight on my shoulders and acknowledged it with both hands.

_I can't depend on him or the others forever…_ lit up my mind, as my heart rate begin to calm down, my eyes now simmering with new conviction. _I know I can do this by myself. And if not for me, then I'll do it for you guys, dead or alive, I will make you proud!_

"Bring it on Robotnik!" I shouted to the heavens, readier than I'd ever been to accomplish my goals.

* * *

**STATION SQUARE / CENTRAL SECTOR AIRSPACE / 10.38 AM**

Before we'd come here I'd never seen such towering structures, not ones that dwarfed even Robotropolis' main citadel anyway! But stood there they did, the sunlight playfully dancing off all the window panes that caressed these metallic constructs. And down below I could blurrily make out the movement of cars [and people assumedly], car horns and traffic lights sounded periodically. The bustle of a city was truly one always on the move.

_Kind of like me when I've tinkered into a new breakthrough, I just have to see it through, nocturnal sleep be lost to me!_ I thought brightly. _I blame it on Rotor_, I joked, since he'd started my boom into becoming a fully-fledged inventor.

But eyes drifting back to the city and away from memories, so too did my thoughts.

_If this skyline was half as bright as the city below at night, or the starry rivers above, I'm sure it would be gorgeous to see._ The fleeting thought came, and one that I'd probably never have the opportunity to take up on, not whilst Robotnik held control of [most] of Mobius.

Robotnik was just ahead now, so I decided to be bold and whizz past him. I had to make my presence known _sometime_, after all.

"What was that?" I heard him mutter irritably as put my 'foot to the metal' and whizzed past him.

_He didn't even recognise me? Hmm, maybe I can get there way before he does!_

"Oh, it's you! Want to play hero eh, well not today mutant!" he howled seconds later, and I knew he was closing the ground between us as I heard the roar of his engine get even louder.

"Me and my big mouth…" I groaned as I fought to stay ahead. I just hoped my energy levels didn't plummet anytime soon, for the missile was still a way in the distance and stuck in something. I heard Robotnik utter something from behind, but it wasn't articulated, moreover a fierce grumble, and so I didn't see what was coming.

I did, however, feel it moments later, as something small and fiery whistled by my ears.

"Yikes!" That'd been a close call; my left ear could've been scorched off! So, in a daringly [or stupid] move, I twisted my head around to see what Robotnik was pumping at me. And the vision of an extended, curved grey turret on the front portion of the Egg-o-Matic was a no brainer. It then started glowing an orangey white again and another fireball flew my way.

Thankfully, it seemed to require a fair bit of energy so they couldn't output at a fast rate, not that they were _slow-mo_, but it wasn't gun fire material.

And so this game of 'big cat with fiery gun and mouse with twin flyable tails' continued so forth, until we reached our destination. It was amazing we hadn't been pulled over by the authorities! But alias we did, somehow.

Now I just had get Robotnik off my tail for a few minutes so I could deactivate the missile.

_What to do? _

_

* * *

  
_

**STATION SQUARE / CENTRAL SECTOR / 10.49 AM**

As my mind whirred away at that, I took in our destination. It seemed like the missile had a thing for heights as it was currently the new city clock face, having smashed its way through the clock tower's roof, a stand-out building that was a colour mixture of lavenders and pinks, and noticeably made of brick work.

"So _boy_, it looks like have a problem," the egg-domed villain said menacingly, as we both hovered outside the aforementioned locale. "I need to wipe this useless city off the map and you're in my way. You know what this means?" he continued, folding his hands into one another.

"Go on then, tell me Robuttnik, what does it mean?" I replied, willingly following the obvious ruse, as I put my survival instincts on high alert.

"It means… that you have to **die**!" he roared, laughing like the madman he was as he rocketed my way.

I dodged him nevertheless with relative ease, making sure I kept within the inner area of the clock tower.

_Oh no_, I thought worriedly as I saw the Egg-o-Matic turret began to flare up again. _If Robotnik throws those fireballs around again then he could hit the missile and detonate it!_

Two fireballs had whirled pasted me now, in an arc-like manner, hitting the underside of the clock tower and causing a stone gargoyle to fall to earth.

_Is that his plan?_ I thought in disbelief. _But… wouldn't he kill himself too? I can't see him doing that, not if Amy and I really are… the last ones… _I mused gravely, and furthermore I consciously became aware that I had no tools in order to disarm the large nuisance. And thus I'd need to snap the correct wire with my bare hands, not a quick task, especially with a fireball-throwing maniac after me.

I need to bring him down, knock the wind out of him, anything to buy me time! I thought wildly, letting my body pilot on instinct, which in this case, set me on a collision course with Robotnik himself, with only a fireball-spewing weapon on side. _Not a problem at all…_ I fretted nervously.

Despite my un-nerves of steel, however, I was actually doing quite well in dodging the oncoming fire! I put it down to mobility instead of boundless luck, though, because the Egg-o-Matic could only understand [and move in] six general directions, whereas I had [theoretically] a whole three sixty degree playground to utilise. Oh okay, the whole malleable living creature versus fixed metallic structure helped too.

I was going in so fast that I barely saw Robotnik's eyebrows rise up in apparent confusion at my antics before I swooped downward and then curved up, like a bopping dolphin [if I can be so modest!], and hit the underside of the hovering vessel. _Hard._ So hard that the bones in hands rattled and a seething pain went through them.

_Ouch! I hope I can still use these by the end of today_, I thought anxiously, and flexing my hands thereafter, it was obvious that there was no breakage. They still hurt abit, though.

"Ragghh!" came the startled cry of Robotnik as his craft flipped onto its side and headed downward, his arms flailing to not only keep his weight from pushing him out and down, but to fiddle with the controls.

_This was it! Now, I have a missile to disarm_, I thought rather confidentially, bursting over with a gust of speed to the clock tower's inner sanctum where said weapon lay ominously.

* * *

The access panel to the missile wasn't hard to spot being an outlined rectangle shape, and the fact it'd made it side closest to me and not deeper into the tower was nothing short of miraculous luck. So I wrestled it open, flicking a wary eye behind me now and again, before prising it open.

Inside, it was a natural mess of wires, as though someone had made it in a hurry. There were green wires, red wires, blue wires, black wires and yellow wires…

_But which of them to snap?!_ I fretted nervously, the clamminess on my face and hands mimicking those very thoughts, for one wrong move would be my last, as well as everyone in the city.

_Red, blue, green, yellow and black, which of those did Rotor mention was usually the live disarming one?_ I mused as calmly as possible, as my chest threatened to constrict.

As I run my hand lightly over each one, hoping to tune my intuition onto the right one, the colours began to run into a cocktail blend in my straining eyes.

I knew my time was not of the essence, and that Robotnik could grab me by the throat any second now, so I quickly made a decision on what fragments of Rotor's teachings I could remember.

_The red wire… The red wire… The red wire…_ repeatedly came the serious voice of my walrus mentor in my mind's eye. Whether it was so ingrained in my memories because it was the most dangerous component of a bomb or the usual disarming factor was something I was about to find out, if my heart didn't leap out of my chest

_No…_ I willed my hand to stop its movement. _I'm forgetting something. Something important!_

Rotor's husky voice again drifted into my ears, from an unknown time [within the last three years]. _Cut the Primer, Reactor then Ignition… _

_So that makes three colour combinations in total, most likely_, I deduced, sweat now ripping down from my face.

I let myself drift back one last time, to envision the fake bomb we'd been examining, as a test run for a Robotropolis warehouse sabotage, or something like that, before letting my hands settle on the first wire.

I took it carefully out of the missile, as far as I could stretch it, before grasping it with both hands.

_Please let this be r-right… I can't f-fail… I can't f-fail… I can't f-fail…_

Then, with a simple snap, there was one wire gone. Even without my eyes open, I could still feel the comforting breeze, so I knew I'd succeeded [this time].

_Now I just had two more to handle. No pressure_, I tried to joke, in order to lighten my mood. It didn't work. And so, with the red wire gone, I turned my attention to the other remaining colours.

* * *

_The red, blue, green and yellow set-up is the most common_, I reiterated to myself, _so that means I should stay away from the black, it's an unknown._

It sounded _right_ in my head, but my twitching hands were making me wonder if my assumption was just that [an assumption]. _What if… What if Robotnik ventured for a more unorthodox style of bomb set-up, thus making the black wire one of the Primer, Reactor and Ignition triad?_ It would be a risky decision, far out of my comfort zone. I needed to think more about this.

To allow my head some breathing space, I stepped away from the missile itself and back across the night sky. My eyes immediately widened, for Robotnik was nowhere to be seen…

_What? Where did he go now?_ I thought worriedly, afraid of a sneak attack, so I gave him twenty seconds to make his move.

Nothing happened, no pain to the back of my skull, no engines whirring, or a stranglehold to my windpipe. For purposes unknown, Robotnik had disappeared and given up on the missile, something that warmed my heart and face. _I scared him off… Now, if I can just disarm this missile, then that'll be fantastic!_ I declared brightly, the former hand pains turning into tingling jolts of anticipation, both fearful and hopeful. _Today could finally be the day…!_

So, back at the missile wiring, with a determined expression I then concentrated on my next target, scanning the greens, yellows and blues, realising that the hurried look of the wiring meant that no unorthodox set-up had been used, thus rendering it a common bomb. A common bomb that Rotor had taught me numerous times about now I recalled, my newfound boldness seemingly providing sweet oxygen to my brain's memory cells.

And out of those remaining, the blue shone out the most, and it was also red's common counterpart, so quickly snapped it, before fear reared its ugly head again.

There was no roar of white light or burning sensation… I continued to _hear_ the quiet, shrills of city birds and the whirring blades of an incoming helicopter on the horizon… _See_ the cloudless blue skies above and the half-shattered bell above me… _Feel_ my very body and the cool breeze flutter around me… And taste the air, though, it didn't really taste of much, to be frank… so I hadn't damned everyone yet.

_They're all counting on me; I have to see this through to the end!_

So I made one last fix-or-break-it decision, took my last selected wire in my hands and took a deep intake of breath.

"This is it…" I murmured to the wind. "Hero or Zero time... Please, don't let me be the killer of this city!" I shouted through shining eyes as I did the deed.

Everything was still, hazy, as though time itself had ground itself to a halt to commend or laugh at my efforts. I was like a real-life statue.

Thankfully, the moment soon passed without incident and I let out a deep sigh of relief [as well as inhaling some much needed oxygen] as my eyes excitedly swept open.

I was _alive_. And not only that, but I'd just saved the entire city from wide-scale destruction, and all on my own!

_Sonic and the others… I'm sure they'd be proud of me_, I thought warmly, wiping away that last fear-infused tear off my face. Big boys need not cry at every little thing, after all.

"And now that's dealt with I can finally rejoin Amy and look for the others!" I declared to the metropolis' skies as I dived down off the clock tower with spring in my step.

A few minutes into my flight was when the rumbling started.

"Wha? W-what's going on now?" I mildly stuttered, confused at this sudden development, as I twisted my head around looking for the source.

The next parade of stomping sounds clearly gave this thing's position away, so I headed for it, a creeping hand of dread working its way up my back…

* * *

**STATION SQUARE / WESTERN SECTOR / 11.06 AM**

A plethora of screaming met me there, as well a giant monstrosity that housed an unfortunate familiar face.

"Oh, no! It's Robotnik, the one who tried to blow up the city!" was the cry of one male bystander, and it quickly became contagious as the area cleared out, leaving only me, Robotnik and his new machine of destruction.

The metallic grey machine was a literal juggernaut with four legs, which, despite missing another four, it was rather spider-like in its stance. Its core held the Egg-o-Matic and atop its back legs with a pair of what I could only figure were small missile launchers. _Oh boy…_ And lastly, on it ankles of its legs were hexagonal blue shields that radiated with electricity.

In short, it was downright terrifying!

Of course, then there was Robotnik's face, which was even worse… The way his eyes were homing in on me [probably narrowed behind those glasses] and the erratic shaking of his hands showed off his foul mood, and that he meant serious business in taking me out here and now.

I gulped [and paled] at the thought. And then he spoke, jolting me out of my wild thoughts.

"So, you beat me to the missile, you little pest," he scathed. "I will make you pay for this humility," he stated simply, masses of venom dripping from his tone.

"You fool. Away, before I make mincemeat out of you!" he said quietly, sadistically. His tone chilling me to the bones.

"I'm not s-scared. I'm not s-scared," I stuttered out, trying to psyche myself up past the growing fear. And with one surge of willpower, I broke past it [at least for now].

"I can do this!"

Then he came charging at me.

_*Play Sonic Adventure – Militant Missionary*_

Being as massive as it was compared to me, I was able to run through the opening between the legs.

"Heh, run all you want fox boy, I will be _grilling_ you this day!" Robotnik shouted from across the plaza, away from the casino where I was now, before a shrilling whistle accompanied the firing of several small missiles coming my way.

_Oh what to do, what to do! _

Despite my spiralling thoughts, I deduced that there was one too many to stay protected on the ground, so I took to the air, hoping for the best as they sailed past me.

Next thing I knew, a deafening chorus of igniting fuel power was blown into my face as the world was illuminated in fiery light.

_What is it with today and me almost getting killed?!_ I instinctively thought to myself, as the updraft from the explosions continued to push me skyward.

Moments trickled by and then I slowly opened my eyes. The destruction was immense.

Tendrils of flames licked at the oxygen in the air, confined mainly to the sides of what had been a road with pavements, the one that'd had numerous cars parked alongside it, the burning husks of which only enticed the flames even more. And as aforementioned, the road was completely tarnished, now only a maze of small to large craters.

I gasped not only at the sight before me as I lay my feet on the charred ground, but to the realisation that I was pretty much trapped in.

_That was his plan all along…_ I thought worriedly. Even though there was nothing I really could have done, I wanted to kick myself for letting him run through with it.

"What's wrong Tails? Can't stand the heat?" Robotnik laughed, to add insult to injury.

_All I can do is continue to be evasive and look for a weakness for now_, I reasoned, keeping my anger at bay [for all the good it'd do me to unleash right now].

And so that's what I did; as Robotnik charged at me again I flew overhead and inspected the machine for a valuable spot. It didn't take long to happen either, seeing as I'd noted the oddity of the hexagonal 'foot warmers' minutes before! The way they crackled with blue-hued electricity now told me that I could [at least] interrupt the power source from them, if not bring down the stability of the whole mech.

But as I flurried to and fro in the air, dodging more missile fire, I wrestled with just _how_ I'd be able to break into these foot pads. I didn't have any weapons at hand, and my punches would probably not even scratch the clear surfaces these things had, so that left me only with my tails… which, as of right now, only enabled me was the gift of flight. And it was for that reason really that I'd never tried to see what offensive they could deal out.

_Maybe now's a better time than any_, I thought. _It's either that or potentially breaking my hands._

So twirling them around to glide me across the fragmented ground, I got in-between the mechs legs, focused the muscles in my tails and spun around fast on my feet. The casing, to my [unsurprising] disappointment, simply brushed my tails smoothly aside.

"What are you trying to do down there brat?" Robotnik shouted incredulously from above, since he couldn't actually see me from whence he was.

I ignored him and tried again. And again. My mounting frustration most likely evident by my facial expression and quivering tails by now.

_What am I doing wrong? …Or am I going after a fantasy?_ I thought dejectedly. It's not as though I knew of any other twin-tailed foxes to tell me the cans and don'ts.

The monotonous sound of stomping legs that came next forced me to abandon a fourth try for the time being, however.

* * *

"Done inspecting and gazing in awe at my craftsmanship, Tails?" Robotnik croaked vainly, before then producing a sparked bomb from behind him and inserting it into the front of his seated Egg-o-Matic.

_Oh no! I'd forgotten about that turret!_ I howled inwardly, as the incoming fire forced my run to be jerky and scattered-brained. I just needed to get underneath it one more time.

As I approached, however, the front left leg of the mech rose up slightly and propelled itself dead at me. I ducked to the side just in time to avoid becoming a fox pancake on one of the building.

"He really means business this time," I quietly whispered to myself, in-between nervous panting. "But, going to all this trouble must mean that those pads are the key to bringing this beast down!"

_I just need a distraction of some kind now, a smoke scre-_. My thoughts stopped there, for I knew exactly what would give me just that.

Next came a rain of missile fire, which I darted expertly in-between, enabling passage to the egg head himself. He scowled and produced another bomb, as I'd expected him to do, and then let it ring out.

_Here goes…_ was all the self-reassurance I could give myself before I put my reflexes to work.

Jolting my right shoulder forward to in turn push my body more smoothly against the air, I closed my eyes to everything but the object I was after. And as it whistled through the air, my hands jerked about in a nervous display of determination – it was either catch the bomb or be blown to pieces.

The trajectory the cannon had fired it at, however, meant that it was going in a fairly predictable arc [helped much so because of the lack of wind power], and so despite my initial jitteriness, catching the bomb by its underside was rather easy. Upon this mild victory, I took the smallest time in shaking it up and down to test its weight.

_Small to mid weight cannon bombs…_ I analysed quickly. _Makes a lot of sense, easy to shoot long ranges and don't weigh the vessel down too much. _

"The perfect tool of…" I began quietly, before raising it to a shout as I threw it at the Egg-o-Matic. "Distraction!"

"Wha? No, NOO!" Robotnik screamed as realisation hit home, before a typhoon of dust and machine parts roared over the vicinity, allowing me to sneak under the vessel undetected.

I could just about see in front of my face and luckily [or should that be unluckily?] the electric pads were still pulsing with blue energy, which illuminated the space a bit moreso. Up above, I could hear the garbled howls of one mad scientist about something or the other.

_I must've done some decent damage_, I deduced happily.

It was then that I took in a deep breath and tightened the muscles in my tails again, but harder and harder this time, and a few seconds more and I specifically felt the tips of them erect [to my own surprise]. Looking back at them, they were now very spike-like in their appearance [and presumably sharper than usual]; it was a pleasant albeit unexpected surprise I must admit. And now, it was time to test them out!

Spinning around on my feet quickly got me into a whirlwind-like spin, and with my newly sharpened tails outstretched, I then hovered to my first foot pad. And in turn, I erratically bounced back and forth between them, much like a ball in a pinball machine actually.

The absence of breaking glass, but instead a quieter and more compact sound pickled my curiously, which prompted me to stop my new-found manoeuvre and recover from the great dizziness it bestowed me.

_Huh, so it's not made of glass after all_, I introspected as I took in the inch or two scratches I'd made. It was in actually some hard casing of gel, and my tails had subtly penetrated it, so with a few more 'Tornado Twists' [an attack name I'd quickly come up with], this walking egg would soon be history [I hoped]!

Before I could continue the assault, the chugging of inevitability moving mecha feet rang in my ears, signalling that I'd better make myself scarce [else leave myself as a sitting duck]. So I high-tailed it out of there [no pun intended] and waited in tense anticipation for Robotnik's next move.

* * *

"Arghh!" blubbered the madman himself, his face sparsely red and his baring teeth a hideous yellow, as the walking egg vessel came out of the dispersing smoke on the street's other side. "You insufferable brat, you destroyed my egg turret!" He continued, pointing to the ash-rendered front portion of his Egg-o-Matic. It was [unfairly] lucky how he'd only got away with deep black marks over himself really.

"That's good to hear then!" I shouted back defiantly. "Then it's just your mecha to go," I stated more boldly, a resulting mixture of the adrenaline and self-determination coursing through me, as I took a fighting stance [which consisted of evenly spread feet and my right fist clenched tightly in front of my face].

"You're a tiny bit smarter than you first appear," he admitted hastily. "But don't let your puny brain swell too much – for I will be reducing you to a mere carcass soon enough!"

And as Robotnik dived into his machinery, undoubtedly to rustle up his next phase of attack and or weaponry, I rolled my eyes at his outburst, having started to become tired of such repeated villain monologues. So I let my eyes linger for only a couple seconds more, before I let them wander, which in turn led to me turning around.

The sight behind me was one I hadn't really been expecting [though, in hindsight, I probably should've]; firstly there was the wall of flames, but behind that there was three or four fire engines, the homo Sapien design of which didn't look much different from what other Mobians settlements used [like Mobotropolis before the fall], it looked less 'natural' than what I'd seen of the later in Rotor's tutor sessions at least. They were, naturally, trying to douse the flames, but didn't look to having much luck at the moment.

And behind them there was what seemed like a smallish crowd, shouting things at me, though I could hear them over the roaring flames. There were even some signs with 'Go Tails!' on them, which both flattered and confused me. Had they seen my two tails and coined the connection to my adopted namesake? Or was it just an ironic nickname? Whichever it was, it seemed like I had a support crowd willing me to come through.

_Golly… so this is the kind of thing Sonic's used to_, I thought modestly. This is _nice_.

It was then that I noticed a particular face in the crowd, a familiar one.

"Sara! " I exclaimed at seeing the little girl [and mother] who'd welcomed us when we first arrived in this city, and from her erratic hand motions thereafter, it was safe to say she'd noticed me, whether she'd heard me or not. Her long, vibrant blonde hair now lay over an attire that wasn't for school, I couldn't tell the exact colours, but shone bright, pales through the towering flame tendrils. And in her hands was another 'Go Tails' message scribbled in big, bolded marker pen-like letters, the biggest out of them all. All they were missing was a picture of me, but that was understandable given my reputation [or lack of one] really.

Her mother, Kathy, dressed in casual jean and shirt attire, was also beside her, the messy, black curls of her hair now fastened into a bun at her back, allowing her greenish grey eyes full exposure. Unlike previously, she didn't look tired nor surprised, only a simmer of determined hope and worry resonated in her eyes.

It was a few moments later of waving exchanges that the 'eureka' moment came. Sara and her mother must've told the gathered folk my name. _Cool…_ I thought simply.

Sensing my free time skidding to an end, I gave them all one quick, warming smile and a thumbs up [courtesy of one best bro ever], before turning affront to face Robotnik once more.

The scathing, but gleeful smile on his face, as well as the drumming motion of his fingers on what remained of his Egg-o-Matic's dashboard indicated that he was more than ready as well.

And so my unfolding story continued.

* * *

On Robotnik's tinkering, the 'egg walker' [as I'd named it by now] charged like a stomping giant spider, expertly avoiding all the craters in the road as it went. And as Robotnik howled with maddening, vengeful glee, he fired his missiles _behind_ him and circled them back at me.

_He's resorting to the same attacks, which means that he must have nothing else to use against me_, I thought thoughtfully as I careened out of the way of both strategies with increasingly fluid movements, which I put down to my rising confidence. I was no Sonic the Hedgehog, but when I needed to be alike a gust of speed I put my all into it – and now was no exception! I was running rings around Robotnik and his machine, which allowed me optimum efficiency in spinning into another Tornado Twist attack.

I lasted about the same period as before, albeit with less dizziness, and this time, numerous cracks, like those left by a small earthquake, had splintered erratically across the hardened gel's surface. Recounting my steps, I deduced that I'd hit each about four times now [twice on each attack] and so about pair of fours would shatter the casing and allow me a fairly easy destabilising or and destruction of the Egg Walker.

Of course, Robotnik had to have coined onto my plans by now, and so come hell or high waters would he let me come out on top so easily! Still, I was going to try my darn hardest to beat the eggman, not only for myself but for everyone else here. With others depending on me now, I simply _couldn't_ lose.

So swiftly wiping some clingy dust from my mouth, I charged on, hovering right across the cracks without faltering, determination burning in my heart.

He saw me coming, his expression narrowing [the glasses obscured his eyes, of course], and vivaciously slammed his fist down before wildly pressing any [or all] the buttons he had.

What came next was chaos, sheer and utter chaos.

Multiple missiles were flying any and everywhere all at once, so much so that it looked like even the missile deploy unit was choking one step closer to oblivion with every launched one, something I quickly decided to keep close consciously. Then there was the machine itself, which was now stampeding at whatever mph it was going at [no more than 30 I'd wager] right at me, and jolting its legs out in turn [from front to back].

I had to ferry myself backwards multiple times to avoid the chunky legs before I could barrel roll out of the way and straight into a crater.

_Rats…_ I groaned. _That wasn't supposed to happen._

Before I could wipe off any of the accumulating dust stuck to me, my ears twitched in reaction to a shrill chorus of whistling, causing my heart to leap into my throat and prompting me to look skyward. Up there was an eight or nine cluster of missiles that in seconds would rain upon me, ending my life in a snap. I couldn't let that happen – I didn't want to die like this! Not against the likes of people like Robotnik…

So with grinding teeth I gathered up all the energy I had left in me, sending shivers of excruciating muscle cramps that would be the night's bane, and flew out of there.

The explosion threw me forward; I'd been so close that I could feel the singeing tops of some of my back fur. It hurt! _But then, after this, I'm sure all of me will be_ I attempted jokily. It didn't help much.

It was only then that I realised just how _loud_ everything had been, which added towards the pining for home, and even towards Miss Tikal's quiet sanctuary of a 'world' that I'd been feeling ever since I woke up mere hours ago. My ears were red hot and alert, as were my sky blue eyes, looking for a booming and dark shadow within the screen of smoke and dust.

This was my chance [probably my only one now]; I just had to see him before he saw me.

* * *

I saw a shimmer of black against the myriad of dark and light greys seconds later, though I still rubbed my eyes and looked again, well aware of things 'being too good to true' sometimes and being nothing but a mirage in the end.

It stayed and didn't melt away. Thankfully, Lady Luck was on my side today it seemed.

And as I tiptoed over to its hazy form, I did my best to hold my breath [so as to not cough wildly on the lingering smoke and dust]. As the silhouette became closer and more detailed, the resonating humming of the blue foot pads filled my ears.

Robotnik was wildly cursing about the excessive amount of 'chalk' the cities' roads were made out of or something nonsensical. I simply let it fly over my head this time and centred myself in the heart of the Egg Walker's underside, the four mildly glowing blues surrounding me.

_It's time to bring Robotnik down a notch once and for all_, I thought fiercely, with maybe a slight heroic essence[?].

_I'm not just a shadow to the others!_ I let loose, connecting me to Amy more than I'd probably ever know in that moment with that one encompassing fear that I'd buried deep within my chain of memories.

And so I got to work, as I noticed the darkness hurriedly turn to light, by spinning myself into a more controlled, but nevertheless feral tornado one last time. I was so into it that I only hear a garble of sound from seemingly every direction [probably Robotnik again], which with haste soon turned into heightened and sharp cracking sounds, before ending with a grand smashing sound, louder and more compact than that of glass [more alike shattering concrete blocks].

Then a large groan echoed above me, like a yawn of a great Mobian Bear, but with the dissipating morning light returned [and the smoke gone], it was then that I looked up in horrified and ecstatic realisation.

The Egg Walker, now with no stabilising electrical current or weight, was swiftly falling to meet the ground! The 'oh my gosh, I really did that' thoughts would have to wait for now.

And with a speedy flurry of my tails I escaped the crumbling mecha, landing right nearby the wall of flame, or where one had been a few minutes before that is.

"Tails! You did it! You saved the day! You're the best!" Sara excitedly shouted all at once, hugging me tightly against my chest. Maybe a bit too tightly…

Still, inside I was over the moon [to be so cliché], so I let her continue for awhile longer, only murmuring out a few words in amazement, the shock and swiftness of the victory still sinking in.

"I did it all by myself… I did it, I really did it!"

Interrupting my thoughts, Robotnik hovered ominously over us [having rocketed out of his doomed creation before it'd hit the ground], staring directly at me, his face the very likeness of a ripe tomato. I pushed my feathery, light feelings down and steeled myself for another confrontation.

* * *

The mad scientist said nothing, only bothering to growl in some attempt at intimidating me, before rocketing away into the skies and out of sight before the numerous helicopters could intercept him.

The ploy didn't work, not only was I too elated to be so emotionally derailed, but I'd seen more of the villain's childish antics this day, so he didn't scare me as much anymore.

And with him gone, and being surrounded by a cheering and compliment-showering crowd, I let those feelings from before bubble to the surface again.

I was so _happy [_baring my aching pains]. I wasn't a shadow anymore, of Sonic, nor the others, or even those bullies back on West Island… I was a more capable person than ever before, I was maturing and now I was ready to grasp things with both hands a bit more, whilst what was left of my childhood remained.

A twinge of sadness coursed in my stomach, and I knew why that was, for as great as being recognised as a hero was [albeit a mild one], no one else knew, not the friends that mattered and that weren't at my side.

_Sonic… Sally… Rotor… Bunnie… Antoine… Knuckles… where are you?_ I thought glumly, the unknown reality of me [and Amy's] current situation sliding hastily back into my forethoughts.

"Amy!" I exclaimed suddenly, scaring Sara's hold off of me. "I told her to meet me back here as soon as she was done at Amber's", I frowned, before turning hopefully to Sara and her mother.

"You wouldn't have happened to have seen her about today?" I asked politely of them.

They shook their heads, offering only silent sympathy through eye contact, which was nice, but not helpful.

_Why isn't she here yet? Did she go on ahead…?_ I thought mildly worried, I mean, I knew she could handle herself pretty well, but if she let her emotions get the better of her… then I hate to think what she'd do.

"I'm sorry Sara, Kathy, but I need to go look for Amy and everyone, it's urgent so I have to-" I began apologising. Hurriedly, only for Sara and Kathy to hold up their hands and tell me to go and that they understood.

I returned the gesture, rocketing into the air with an invigorating burst of speed and a heart that was fluttering between lightness and heaviness, into the cloudless blue skies above towards the floating Egg Carrier in the distance, with a new understanding of courage and heroism, as well as a new respect for hope.

And as I got closer and closer to finding out my friends' fates, the uncannily fitting melody of that old radio favourite nursed my ears:

_When all alone in my chair, I just go about wishing  
I wanna be strong, I really wanna be trusted  
When all alone in my bed, I just go about yearning  
I wanna be cool, I also wanna be like him_

_But that's not something I can do so easily  
This is not simply my way, my style  
Gotta get a hold of my life_

_I wanna fly high  
So I can reach the highest of all the heavens  
Somebody will be waiting for me so,  
I have got to fly higher  
_

_When all alone in my sleep, I just go about dreaming  
I see myself there, having the same adventure_

_If I just follow you, I will never see the light  
Now is the time to find my way through this life  
I'm trying so hard to be strong_

_Gotta keep goin'  
Everything is a brand new challenge for me  
I will believe in myself  
This is the only start for me_

_I wanna fly high  
So I can reach the highest of all the heavens  
Somebody will be waiting for me so,  
I have got to fly higher_

_Many friends help me out, in return I help them  
Certain things I can do and there are things that only I can do  
No one's alone!_

_I wanna fly high  
So I can reach the highest of all the heavens  
Somebody will be waiting for me so,  
I have got to fly higher… _

* * *

**Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream**

* * *

And thus ends the twentieth chapter of this story arc!

It turned out longer than I first expected, but I liked the finished outcome [mostly]. And yes, I had to include the Tails song, tis too great not to [no matter how cheesy it may look inserted in here]. xD

But yes, I didn't have much inspiration for the missile race itself, sorry. I hope I did some justice to Tails' maturing mindset and the Egg Walker battle, though [I really liked my Egg Walker battle rendition, personally].

Originally, I was going to have Tails get caught in a head-lock by Robotnik and in a desperate attempt to regain control of his breathing and get free, Tails punches or flurries his tails in the villain's face. This allows Tails to not only get free, but to locate the engine key and promptly switch it off [and swiping it in the process]. A shocked Robotnik goes plummeting downward and Tails throws away the engine key in another direction before going to the missile.

I thought this may be a bit morbid[?] an action for Tails, a nine year old by this time, to partake in and so I changed it to the more comedic version in the chapter instead.

I also wanted to [try] and have Tails evolve not only as a character, but in the knowledge of his own [unique?] body, and so I factored in the 'Rhythm Badge' attack upgrade from the SA game in order for him to gain the leverage [and inspire confidence] enough to best Robotnik here.

* * *

In addition to this chapter I have now slightly revised some spelling and grammar in the previous chapter [as per the review by Aspiring Mythmaker], as well as learnt some more technicalities of French [a language I personally have never studied], and also made Sonic 'cobalt blue' instead of that, azure _and_ cerulean [which are all varying shades of such].

Chapter five has also been revised for pretty much the same, by a reviewer named Hawki, who has done a stand-up job of criticising chapter by chapter [so far]!

Now, there are four short chapters to go until the endgame, one that is to go out with a BANG! I doubt I can get there for the end of 2009, but in the beginning of 2010 this story will surely be finished at last?!

* * *

I hope you enjoyed this, and the chapters so far, any comments or ratings would be nice and appreciated! ^-^

'**Calling of the Ancient Past' is the next chapter.**

Take care ya'll ***smiley face***


	23. Calling Of The Ancient Past

**Disclaimer**: _I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "**Change The World**" by ARTIST Dream

* * *

**CHAPTER 21: Calling Of The Ancient Past**

Darkness.

That was all I could see after the Egg Carrier spiralled in the air, ready to meet its fiery demise and snuff us all out of existence. _Just like we'd be doing to the light in Tails and Amy's hearts if we do die_, I thought painfully, somewhere in this perpetual darkness.

Thinking about it, the darkness has always blighted things in my life. From the time when I was very young, when mum and dad had to 'go away', as Uncle Chuck had put it, and then the day Robotnik came to the Emerald Hill Zone… and from then on ever after.

_Why? _

That thought caused my mind to wander, and eventually a series of words bubbled to the surface.

_I didn't have a choice at all_, I thought glumly, which someone would probably say was somewhat out of character for me, but I didn't really care. _What do they know about me?_ They don't really know me. Not really.

… _Perhaps this is destiny? _

I tried to ignore the smartass sounding voice 'from within', but it did, after a few ticks, grind my thoughts to a slower pace, which was something I likened more to fear of its grains of truth than our impending[?] doom.

I'd never been a religious guy, and I highly doubted I ever would; it was too restricting and well, too perfect to be honest. So it wasn't to my tastes; a cool blue hedgehog who loved freedom, the wind trailing between his spines and the adventures I'd [inevitably] find myself in whilst exploring the green, bold Mobius. And it was akin to things like destiny too, something even my no brain-boxed mind would take offense to [if it were true].

_Man… I wonder what's going to happen now?_ I murmured, somewhat bored into the void, unsure of whether I was up or down, on my side or just plain everywhere at once [something that you just need to be there to know what I mean really]. And it was because of that uncertainty that I was unaware as to whether I was dead or just deeply unconscious. If someone asked me right now, I really couldn't tell them a thing, I was just _here_. Alone.

_Where were Sally, Rotor, Bunnie and Antoine…? Knuckles even?_ I thought hardly, trying to remember anything else from our last few moments on board the Egg Carrier, which in turn just made my mind hurt.

_I need to be doing something – I don't like standing about doing nothing!_ I shouted into the all-encompassing darkness, unaware of how even my own voice sounded by now. I hadn't heard anything anyway, which was rather ticking me off. If I _was_ dead then at least they could hurry the formalities along a wee bit faster… I groaned inwardly. Just a sign. That was all I wanted, that's all.

I was half-expecting nothing more than a rolling tumbleweed for my efforts, but within a few short moments, a blinding light came on down [or was that up?] and blinded my eyes [which I could still feel and use, oddly enough]. At that I felt the need to say only one word.

_Bingo. _

_

* * *

  
_

[_NARRATOR'S POV_]

The Mystic Ruins was a tranquil paradise, and the period of absent light was no less spectacular. For starters, as one may not expect, the sounds [and variety of such] were more overwhelming than in even the period of light. This orchestra consisted mainly of tiny chirps, squeaks and flutters, of the insect kind, creating a multidimensional melody that flowed throughout the belly of the jungle, all the way to its head in the tree canopies. Under this denser stretch of air and invisible skylight, whilst the birds mainly slept, the insects were joined by the likes of the hunters, like the jungle cats, too. And so it went without saying really that the jungle wilderness really _did_ come to life at night.

But that had all come to a swift end when a rumbling roar, alike that of an unnatural beast, came rocketing overhead, taking many a tree's top [or the whole structure], as well as the inhabitants of said tree with it, and right into the gorge at the end of the jungle's reach.

A cacophony of confusion and fury by the jungle's inhabitants radiated outwards like a siren for a long while after. But when it did finally qualm, the jungle, once vibrant with sounds, was now just silent.

Hours later, after the caressing fingers of dawn had come and gone, only then did the daytime jungle symphony begin anew.

And at this very moment, there was just enough light, showering down like white rain, to see a deep carpet of golden-green grass in the deepest recesses under the spidery canopies. And in this carpet bed laid five anamorphic persons, including one cobalt blue hedgehog.

The Freedom Fighters had landed back amongst the jungles of the Mystic Ruins. Again.

* * *

**MYSTIC RUINS ZONE / DEEPER JUNGLE REGION / 09: 25 AM**

"Welcome back to the world of the living sleepy-hog", said a calm and somewhat cheeky feminine voice as the eyelids of that said hedgehog began to flutter, straining to fully open.

The first thought that came to Sonic's mind was just how hungry he was, his stomach was growling painfully, no less due to all the energy he'd expended the previous day. With no whiff of a hearty breakfast nearby, only then did he wonder just where he was and who that familiar voice belonged to.

All of these thoughts and more ran through his mind as he slowly pulled himself up into a sitting position; first he propped himself up by his arms before forcing himself up fully, before willingly his eyes to open. As he did so, the hedgehog's vision was blurred, like a badly polished pane of mirror, as the bright daylight, even this far down, almost blinded him. Ignoring the stinging this brought on, Sonic blinked a couple of times to get things to focus and then the voice's owner became strikingly clear. Standing just a few feet away from him was none other than Princess Sally, with Bunnie, Rotor and Antoine sitting around nearby, watching him with relieved faces.

It was then that everything came thundering back into his awakened consciousness. The assault on Robotnik's Egg Carrier, the battles against the water monster Chaos, Knuckles' explosive attack, saying farewell to Tails and Amy, the crash of the Egg Carrier…

_Wait._ He thought suddenly, shaking with a jolt of worry. _What happened after that? How did we all survive?_ The cobalt blue hedgehog continued, looking across all of their faces, now looking slightly worried too, as though he may be amnesiac or something. It looked like the quartet didn't know anymore than he did from the lack of hurried explanations.

_Wait a minute_, he thought, stumbling mid-step, before voicing his thought out loud, a slight tinge of unease in his tone. "Where is Knuckles?"

"He went to get y'all some more berries and coconuts sugah hog," Bunnie chirped happily from her picnic-looking spot'. "He's been gone a little while now, so he should be rollin' on back anytime-"

The semi-tall high foliage to the east of their position rustled, revealing one said crimson echidna.

"-now?" the southern female ended abruptly.

The stretch in the encompassing darkness of his subconscious forgotten, Sonic immediately sprang to attention to quiz his friendly rival of the items he held in his procession.

"I never saw you for the tree-picking motherly type Knux, have you been hanging out on us?" the teenage spiny hedgehog teased, prodding the Guardian playfully in the ribs as he passed him.

Knuckles' facial features bore a striking look that spelt out that he wasn't amused, but he simply grunted and walked on by, carefully depositing his collectables on the jungle carpet, which was surprisingly mostly-dry after the blustery storm the previous eve. Then again, this stretch of land did seem to well covered, the layers of canopies surely reaching a total of eight or ten.

But alas, after setting down their breakfast plentiful, which consisted mainly of succulent, red and ripe berries, with a few black berries and soft-furred brown coconuts intermixed [in short, utterly scrumptious-looking], Knuckles voiced his retort back in Sonic's face.

"Have you forgotten so soon that I've lived alone on my island all my life? How else would I have survived without learning how to gather my own food and drink?" the island Guardian answered his critic testily.

"Chill Knuckles man, I was just messin' with you," Sonic waved off casually, his eyes practically devouring the berry morsels right there and then. Sally, not in the mood for hearing another show of egos, then took it upon herself to explain what she could remember.

"Okay, okay, heel guys," the Acorn Princess interjected seriously. "I'm sure you're wandering just why all of us are in one piece, right Sonic?"

The cobalt blue's retort, now lost to him, left the hedgehog with a gaping mouth which swiftly drew into a small, thoughtful pout.

"Well, yeah, this is abit weird to be honest guys," Sonic strung out confusedly, stroking his back head spines as he did so.

"We agree, it is weird," Sally conceded thoughtfully. "But I myself don't recall anything before I awoke. I just remember everything going black," she voiced with mild frustration."And NICOLE doesn't have anything else either," the Princess added.

Sonic's face at that point could've almost been a prime dictionary picture of crestfallen, and the oddest thing for the hedgehog was that he had no idea why it was bothering him so much.

Yes, they'd miraculously survived, so surely that should've been enough?

Something deep inside just itched as to just why that was the case, it was almost something primeval like. It was odd, but it thankfully wasn't too encompassing, since he knew that no one else was any the wiser either. It did make him hungrier thinking about it, though…

Knuckles strode stiffly across the assigned picnic spot, almost trampling over Antoine's laid-out fruit.

"Héy! Mind where you marchez!" he exclaimed, gathering the rest of his brunch together protectively, like a mother bird would do to shield her chicks from the cold.

The Guardian paid him no heed; instead with arms tightly folded and a hanging displeased expression, he divulged what he knew.

"Anyway, I was the first up so I had to wait for everyone else to," he began. "But hours pasted and you _still_ hadn't got up," he grumbled. "So I took it upon myself to qualm everyone's audible hungers. We certainly weren't going to carry you all the way back to my island, and no one else here knows how to live and survive out in nature," he concluded, strutting away to be by himself until they were ready [as much as his impatience wanted to say to heck with them].

Sonic's gaze had subtly trailed over everyone's during Knuckles' monologue; something the cobalt blue wasn't sure whether it was a good or bad thing that they were becoming seemingly more common, but he had noticed a peculiar look pass Bunnie's face in particular. It'd been specifically after Knuckles had uttered his last statement, the one about them all not knowing how to survive in the wild, which was interesting, though the look pasted as quickly as it'd come.

_I'll have to ask her about that one day_, he noted.

With that entirety said, the hedgehog sat down and vivaciously tucked in.

* * *

"That really hit the spot," Sonic murmured pleasurably, softly tapping his now-plump belly before he lay out on his back. "Or as Antoine would probably say: 'Blah blah Magnifie!"

"Tres magnificent, is tres magnificent it iz you foeel!" was the French-tongued coyote's expected defensive.

"I know, I know Ant, keep your soldier pants from twisting why don't you?" he waved off, prepared to ignore whatever reply Antoine may have retorted with, which in this case was only a disapproving huff.

A sour pout quickly arose for the dejected soldier want-to-be. "Then I am guessing that you are _not_ wanting to know what happened after you all blacked out, oui?"

"You mean you weren't the first?" Bunnie said unbelievably.

Everyone turned to stare at her, even Knuckles, mouths slightly agape.

"What?" she protested loudly. "You were all thinkin' the same…"

Antoine's face had gone a peachy red, though whether that was from anger or embarrassment, one couldn't quite tell, and it quickly quelled when the rebel Princess put a reassuring hand on his left shoulder.

"We're listening Antoine," Sally said pressingly, but gently.

"W-well, actuallys it was the hedgehog and I who were going to the blackness last," he fretfully confessed. No one batted an eyelid at that, though Sonic's expression was one of thoughtful recollection. That piece at least had reassembled itself in his mind. "I was seeing tze hedgehog for just a moment when a bursting yellow light came from all around, then everything went all white, very hazy," he moaned, audibly recalling the disorientation he'd felt. "Then my world was going all black until I woke up with tze rest of you."

"Golly that sounds bizarre; don't you think Sally-girl?" Bunnie anxiously asked of her best friend, and their resistance leader, scrunching her eyes up thoughtfully as though it'd bring clarity from the darkness into the light. From the silence and look Sally bared moments later; it looked like a light bulb hadn't yet illuminated the event at hand.

"Hmmm," Sonic chimed audibly, rubbing his chin. Everyone turned to see if he'd remembered something.

The cobalt blue hero, however, instead pointed to the other collection they had on their picnic spot, the seven Chaos Emeralds. Now that six of them were no longer within Chaos' body, the light blue, dark blue, yellow, red, green and purple [excluding the unused grey] emeralds had regained their lustre and were subtly glowing again.

"Maybe it was something to do with them," the hedgehog said casually. "Or another of Knuckles' strange powers?" he thought out loud, looking the Guardian's way. From the unsurprised sculpture that was his face, Sonic deduced that their saving grace moment had been detailed to the echidna already.

"Oui, oui, that would be making some sense," Antoine concurred.

So in light of no further development into the specifics of their survival, Sonic decided to bite the bullet.

"So, hey, Knuckles," he drawled out, a slight edge of caution in his tone, as though walking a tightrope. "Any ideas on the big light show you pulled off last night?"

The crimson hothead opened his mouth to reply, then thought better of it and sat down, cross-legged and arms uncharacteristically unfolded, instead casually spread out as his palms rested on the jungle floor. Then with some twinges of weariness, he spoke.

"Like I told the others before you woke up, I'm not entirely sure," he mused. "I remember my sight becoming hazy and my pulse increasing around the time these were glowing," he continued, holding out his makeshift Master Emerald shards necklace in indication. "Then a wild, almost excitable yearning filled my body and wisps of chaos energy were flowing around me, and then suddenly my vision went green," the Guardian recalled, eyes closed, chewing down on his upper lip tightly.

Sally, Bunnie and Antoine noted this and were surprised the frustrated echidna didn't drew blood when his teeth came unclenched and his purple pools reopened, downcast and darkened slightly. They also saw Sonic with an expecting look on his face.

"… And that's it. Next thing I know I'm in a tree in this jungle, and a little more exhausted than usual," he cringed, whether from the uncertainty of his dormant power[s] or just the mere fact he'd openly spoken of weakness. He and his people, what he knew about them from the few, legible documents on the Floating Island, were a proud warrior race, after all. And so it wasn't too surprising to everyone present, when he interjected an "I feel fine now" before sinking back into a meditative state.

Respecting the dude's 'lone time', our True Blue then turned his query to another question that'd been on the brain for the few minutes he'd been up.

* * *

"Hey Rote', aren't you interested in how we all lived to tell the Chaos tale?" Sonic asked of the Freedom Fighter walrus, a close pal whom not only crafted ingenious creations of science, but who appreciated and shared in much of his humour and likes [excluding technology, of course].

"And what are doing there anyway?" he continued, sitting down by the communicator-fiddling elder teen.

"Oh, hey Sonic. Sorry I didn't greet you properly after you woke up," Rotor mumbled apologetically, corking his head up from whatever he'd been bust doing. "NICOLE and I have been accumulating and exchanging our resources to analyse the nearby temple," he said proudly.

Sonic's mild rise of excitement hastily plummeted, you could tell from how his face visibly sunk. Then he sheepishly asked just where this temple was, because he couldn't see anything…

"Sonic, it's right through there," Sally literally pointed out with a sigh, shaking her head at the hedgehog's acute lack of scope.

The cobalt blue hero followed the end of her finger, which she loved to point with, and saw that it led to a small parting in the overrun foliage of the area, just to their east, where thin streams of golden sunlight seeped in; just enough to illuminate their area and nothing more.

And this led him to look around more, his eyes firstly being guided upwards by the potent sunlight streams. It was then that he noticed it. They weren't in a clearing as much as a dome which had lengthy but thin gaps sliced into it in order to let sunlight in, like a camouflaged hideout of some kind, the hedgehog mused to himself.

He trailed his eyes back down and squinted, enabling him first glimpse of Rotor's temple.

It was structured very much like the typical temples Rotor had described to him before, be it via some TV documentary he'd want to watch when he stayed over or just by his mouth's admission. Ancient history wasn't his forte, but even Sonic was in mild awe of the sheer size of it. Multiple layers of slated rectangular blocks raised it to the skies, getting wider with every increasing layer. The filtered sunlight made the temple shine like gold in almost every place that wasn't covered in emerald-green moss, which made it look more worn down, or at the single small doorway that adored the centre of its base.

"It got ya aflutter too sugah hog?" Bunnie said airily, walking up to his side with the others joining around them. "So did ya find anythin' about it Rotor darling?" she then asked heartily.

"Yes, we did actually," the walrus brainchild replied, clapping his hands together joyfully. "For it gives more plausibility to what I was telling you, Antoine and… Tails about yesterday," he started off happily, before realisation hit home, for all of them, at just the mention of their little kindred Freedom Fighter.

A silent breeze through the clearing marked the tender memories of their last meeting, with Tails and Amy, prompting Sally to answer what would be on everyone else's mind [sans Sonic and Knuckles] after pulling out her blocky communicator.

"Sorry guys, I still can't get a signal out of here, so I can't get in touch with them to let them know we're alive," the Princess sniffed, the raw emotions threatening to rise up and spill all over again. She really did see the young boy as her a nephew, maybe even a son, she mused to herself as she let Bunnie give her a reassuring hug.

And cautiously, nervously, Sonic gave her a quick one too before awkwardly separating, feeling a lot for both the young ones [in different ways].

"Maybe this place is some fortified defence system," Knuckles suddenly offered up, now standing just at the entrance to the temple clearing. The cobalt blue hero had to continue to give him some credit, for he hadn't noticed him go by at all, then again, stealth wasn't exactly his style... But still, he was perplexed at the Guardian's sudden interest in the place, especially considering the certain emerald in pieces around his neck.

"Anyway guys, you won't believe this, but this temple is actually of echidna origin!" Rotor exclaimed suddenly, as though proclaiming the mysteries of life.

For Knuckles, whose heart had momentarily stopped and then crawled to a time-slowing beat, it certainly was like the beginning of discovering his purpose in life was now just feet away.

But first he had to be sure.

And so with athletic ease, the Guardian cleared the foot or so between him and the techno whiz in seconds, leaving their faces just inches apart.

Sonic and Antoine looked as though they wanted to interfere, but Sally mouthed an order to stand down, and so tensely they did. At least until anything went array, that is.

"… _How_ do you know this, Rotor? And how likely is it the _truth_?" the crimson echidna asked seriously, his eyes steely and threatening. Simply put, he was in no mood to play around here, and with a large gulp, so Rotor knew it too.

Fumbling his first few words, the young creator then explained the whole affair, including repeating what he'd told certain members of the group the previous day, then just a theory and now closer a reality.

* * *

It had taken just about five minutes, but that was a period of time that'd not only appeased him, opened new doors for him, but had confused him too. But then for Knuckles, having a rough timeframe of possible Echidna history was rather new to him, having had none at all, so it'd take some getting used to.

Sonic and co could tell that he was now in a better mood than perhaps they'd ever seen him from the small smile he now wore, his eyes hungrily darting to the temple. And it made them happy too, the fiery Guardian not believing and throttling Rotor as they'd feared included.

The tale of the Temple and the collaboration of NICOLE and Rotor could be wrapped up simply as:

"So in short, you both cross… referenced," the crimson Guardian had said slowly, a word foreign to his lips till this day. "-your written history and compared it to structure samples you merely looked at, since I'd _never_ let you guys touch my Island's instruments," he continued with mild distaste and scepticism. "-and likened it to this very temple? And not only _that_… but my island originally hailed from that big lake it now lies in?" Knuckles finished, almost shrilling with sheer amazement.

"Yes, I find it highly probable Knuckles," Rotor continued, now on an excitable roll. "The southern parts of Mobius were more tropical than the zones are now, and we're just south of the equator here. Time and Mother Nature would easily account for the lake's bigger scale to the Floating Island now, but all that aside, essentially a great period of time in this land's history has never been recovered, which mean that–"

"Tze echidnas were maybe the ones living in these lands?" Antoine interjected unsurely.

"Yes, my hypothesis precisely Antoine," the walrus applauded, not at all annoyed for the interruption. It was a nice feeling for others to acknowledge and work things out themselves from his findings!

"And it'd also explain the visions of the one called Tikal that you and Tails have experienced lately, because of the proximately to this land," he said with a weary, reasonable balance of acceptance and scepticism, being a scientist and all.

If someone had told them something like that years ago, the Freedom Fighters probably would've dismissed the ghostly event as a madman's problem, but the Chaos Emeralds, amongst other things had opened their minds to such 'out there' concepts. Not that there wasn't Mobian settlements who were so inclined, but the societies they'd all been raised in hadn't taken such interest to the mystics.

Deep in thought, Knuckles had pleasantly thought it to be a great answer, as he felt his heart drumming away slowly, as if winding up for a big revelation of sorts in the nearby future. It didn't explain why the little boy, a non-echidna, had received such treatment [out of any of the rest, the more physically mature ones], but to be brutally honest, the Guardian didn't care an ounce. Not now.

If the temple was one of his people's then he wanted to explore it and find out as much as he could gleam from it, the others could accompany him or go on, either way he was entering that temple, the heavens be damned.

_Maybe now I can finally find out what become of my people… At last_, he thought hopefully.

So with no exchange, the determined Guardian, still a mere mid-teen despite his serious mannerisms, strode forward through the gateway between both clearings alone.

A few fleeting moments pasted as they watched him go before Sally then looked to them all and cocked a single finger in Knuckle's direction, now halfway across the tall grasses outside the temple, and then behind them. The meaning was obvious; should we accompany him or head back for the others?

Sonic initially shrugged before giving a thumbs up, Bunnie shouted a 'Ah'll never abandon a friend into the unknowns' with a quick pump of her robotized arm, whilst Antoine and Rotor went for simple, but determined nods. The vote was unanimous; they were going to help Knuckles find some answers. Tails and Amy could handle themselves, and they'd only surely be a few hours anyway, so they followed the Guardian's tracks.

The crimson echidna had obviously stopped to wonder whether they had been coming along for he stood passively outside the entrance door, watching them, his eyes unreadable.

_Is he glad that we want to come with him or just tolerant of it?_ Princess Sally wondered as the gap between them ceased, and also wondering if anyone else was thinking the same. _Maybe so, maybe not…_ was all that rang in her ever-whirring mind.

He acknowledged them all with a nod before motioning them along, and as he turned away from the sun and them, Sally swore she saw a small smile etched at the corner of the echidna's mouth. She didn't think she was imagining it again at least, so it made her happy to see that he had become more relaxed around them.

The Acorn Princess didn't say anything, though, so with that they followed suit until the darkness consumed them completely, as though they'd entered a new world altogether.

And by the end of this day, that'd seem more a reality than they could've imagined.

* * *

**MYSTIC RUINS ZONE / DEEPER JUNGLE REGION / ANCIENT TEMPLE / 10: 02 AM**

_*Sonic Adventure – Lost World ~Tricky Maze~* _

The group had been inside the ancient monument for just a little over fifteen minutes now, but I'd taken less than fifteen seconds for the potent, musty smell, the indescribable distinct smell of something very, very old, to hit them and infect their nasal systems. Coughing fits ensured, but as they got deeper inside, they became more tolerate of the smell and the humidity as its strength lessened.

The interior of the temple itself was as one would expect, the walls were constructed out of the same golden blocks visible from the outside, albeit with a worn, greyish tint and less covering moss, and the floor they trod on was a mosaic-tiled floor of light grey.

Both aspects were subjected to many different orientations throughout; for after passing the first room, filled with finely sculptured pillars and a floor with shoe-deep water, they'd entered a long spirally tunnel that'd disoriented them. Knuckles had whizzed through it, though.

After that the temple had undergone a change of character, from an eerily silent one, to a golden rock tunnel of traps; blocks slamming out of the walls, all at different angles, every ten seconds or so, and with small bursts of flame from above and below.

The sudden mood change had been expected by Sally, knowing full well that ancient treasure holds contained physical and or mental-sapping traps, and they'd all assumed this temple was of no difference in that respect. And to their Guardian friend, at least, it was an ancient treasure trove waiting to be found. That's not to say it was an easy journey across, however, for it was physically testing, even for one as fit as herself, plus the temperature was rising with every minute, as Antoine indicated plainly...

It really gave new meaning to the term 'hot under the collar', for multiple sweat drops already lined their faces, sans Knuckles, whose own Sandopolis had probably made him resistant to such. This was probably akin to a warm bath or shower to him, the rebel leader figured.

Following this and some spike traps, it was then that the temple showed yet another face to the Freedom Fighter explorers after passing through a gigantic stone lizard's mouth, adored with teal mosaic-sculptured stone.

"Oh mah lucky stars… Would ya'll look at that…" Bunnie had said, utterly breathless, just as the Princess was. Sonic and Antoine were gawking together in a combination of shock, awe and confusion, whereas Rotor looked positively giddy from the way he jumped up and down and his purple pools twinkled.

A giant basin of crystal clear water took up most of the room, with curved stone pathways lacing its inner skirts, which a single path in front of them led to. The room was thus naturally spacious and it kept the same grey and golden colour, wrestling for dominance, and the rough, ordered lining and feel, but it was oh so much more _alive_.

Sounds they'd never have imagined inside this place reached and caressed their eardrums; from the trumpeting, shrills of the lizards to the swishing and plopping of moving, jumping fish, and the tiny, clicking chirps of the insects. This drumming harmony was nevertheless lower in volume than what the jungles outside would provide, but in here it had more of an ethereal, tribalistic tone Rotor thought as his eyes darted excitedly from species to species, from specimen to specimen.

There were large, lime green chameleons, a hue so vivid that he was unsure if it had even existed before this moment, which shuddered before changing colours in front of their very irises, to unsure greys, calm blues and in some, a fiery red. They all quickly scarpered off.

The reptile was also joined by a smaller member of its kind, the Gecko, which were darker green skinned with dots of yellow, light blue eyes and feet, that simply scurried away with their 'sticky' toe pads up the walls from first sight. Living amongst these were plump, grey and red scaled fish and various insects, the most striking of which were the orange balls floating around, undoubtedly fireflies.

In addition, plentiful foliage was growing freely, in harmony with the moss as well. Some were even flowering from the looks of it, though that was only under the spots of seeping sunlight from above.

"Rotor, do you any idea what this all is?" Sally asked quietly, snapping out of her awe-induced trance, as they slowly wandered across the lake's pathway. She, as well as the others had never seen anything like it in their lives.

The wise walrus hummed a thoughtful hum for a few moments before answering, peering his eyes downward and at them all, like a glasses wearing scientist would when explaining something serious and or fantastical to you [thankfully youth was still very much on Rotor's side, for he needed no glasses].

"That one I can answer, Sally," he began."What we are all witnessing now is a whole new ecosystem from the one outside."

"Hold up, hold up," Sonic interjected impatiently, making a 'time out' like sign with his hands. "Say what?"

"For many years there have been whispers of an ancient ruin within this region, but no one has ever found it. Until us. So, however we fell here, we went through the section of jungle that'd covered this deep, uncharted basin," he stated articulately. "And so the likelihood of new species here and outside, particularly in here, is quite probable," the walrus finished, his eyes glistening.

"But how are tze creatures keeping alive?" mused one coyote.

"That I can answer too, Ant," the walrus replied simply. "Come on over here guys," he motioned to the pathway's edge. They trod with caution, not wanting to find out how deep and strong the waters were.

"You see those?" Rotor nudged, pointing to the undersides of the room, where two or three alcoves were situated. "Well those provide the water for the life here," he pointed.

"So this here water all comes from the outside yah mean?" Bunnie realised, amazed at how thieving nature could be even this deep and far from the full warmth of the sun.

The walrus nodded with a smile. "Indeed, this enclosed ecosystem could provide science with a near picture-perfect snapshot of possible prehistoric life, frozen in time!" he exclaimed before taking his attention back to the wildlife at hand.

As they stood back up Antoine and Bunnie were sure that they'd spotted a large and serpentine-looking shadow down at the deepest recesses of the pool, but didn't say anything. They'd independently figured that bringing attention to it would bring bad luck [and it] to them.

The Freedom Fighters continued on in blissful silence thereafter, making their way to the giant door that lay at the room's end via the pathways.

A minute later, Sonic broke it.

"You know with all this stuff in here, I kinda wouldn't be surprised to see a good ol' dinosaur in here, what about you guys?" the cobalt blue hedgehog voiced humorously, hands tucked behind his head.

Sally was tempted to roll her eyes at the absurdity, but considering the things they'd seen in the last few days, and just now, she didn't want to tempt fate, so she didn't. The Princess also hated being wrong.

Trailing ahead of them was the Floating Island's Guardian, who whilst admittedly a little intrigued himself, only really wanted to get a move on. For deep inside, a string of dread was beginning to lengthen and split into multiple, slithering strands.

_What is this unease I feel?_ He wondered curiously, growing annoyed at the prickling feeling he was being bestowed with. _Is this just nervous anticipation… or did something bad happen here? To my race?_

Grasping the Master Emerald necklace of shards gave him no murmur, nor comfort, so he simply hardened his will and carried on. And when they reached the arch doorway, adorned with ancient echidna hieroglyphics, not unlike the ones gracing the inner chambers of the Sandopolis Pyramid and the underground Emerald Chamber, Knuckles knew that all would become clear soon enough.

Beyond this point, and a few bypassed traps later, the gang had arrived at their destination. Not that they knew that, yet.

* * *

**MYSTIC RUINS ZONE / DEEPER JUNGLE REGION / ANCIENT TEMPLE / CENTRAL CHAMBER / 10: 43 AM**

"So this is the big room of glory, huh," Sonic whistled as they strolled into the aforementioned room, the likes of which was on a similar scale to the big pool of life they'd gone through. Except it was lit only by an array of carefully placed torches, still alit over several millennia's… which set a homely pretence, alongside two small inlets of water.

"It looks like it, there's no other passageways other than this one," Sally stated after taking a quick look around, though whether she was taking the hedgehog's statement literally or merely voicing her thoughts out loud one couldn't tell for sure. Furthermore, Bunnie, Antoine and Rotor were looking decidedly apprehensive as they crossed into the darker room.

"So, see anything important about your people–" Sonic asked Knuckles' way, a helpful, but not overdone expression etched into his facial features.

The Guardian of the island [that had formally been in the sky] didn't answer though, for he'd halted suddenly and was looking beyond the hedgehog and all of them with wide eyes, unlike they'd ever seen on his face before.

Curious and worried, Sally and the others followed his eye line, and then wondered how they could've missed it.

* * *

_*Sonic Adventure – The Past* _

For leering over the room was a gigantic mural, an ordered collective of stone and rich paints, which depicted a serpent-like creature of misty blues, greens and yellows. The creature in discussion also had green silted eyes, long yellowish-white fangs and a peachy forked tongue. This by itself would have unnerved even the reptile lovers amongst those present, but it was what surrounded its lithe length [and boy did it look huge] that really set Sally and co's heart's pumping, and their feet itching to run.

Tall dark pillars arched into the brushed skies, most of them crumpled like it'd been mere paper, surrounded by wild brushstrokes of reds, yellows and oranges, a combination that generally meant the same in any culture: fire. In addition, a swirling mass of milky whites and blues took rein of the background, though some still sloshed into the foreground set of chaos.

Below the bed of flames, curiously, were scribbled triangular constructions [or so they looked], which were partly obscured by an array of further scribbles, except these were more obvious in their shape. They were humanoid, big and small, and yet not, so Mobians then they were; ones with flailing, lengthy hair that were running from the catastrophe.

The masterpiece, albeit slightly worn, sent a slithering chill down their spines, which then lightly caressed their hearts. It was just morbidly fascinating.

"What… is… _this?!_" Knuckles boomed to the heavens, as though he'd get a reply, before collapsing to the floor in defeat, the sheer intensity of which startled everyone else.

Echoing into existence a moment later, a series of water droplets sang an ominous verse across the skin of water, and it was then, like a key opening a door, that the group saw just what it most likely meant to Knuckles. Then their hearts simply cried for him.

"Is THIS the secret of my past?" Knuckles cried out, punching the floor as hot tears pricked at his purple eyes. "That my kind died… All by Chaos…" he stated slowly, his voice wavering, as though saying it out loud would make it any easier to accept. It didn't. So he punched the ground again, succeeding in making a crevice fit for two heads.

"Is that all my kind was good for, for dying?!" he howled, his eyes now ablaze. Antoine had already yelped and taken a fair amount of steps away from the raging Guardian, hiding behind Rotor, but now even Sonic and Bunnie were wondering whether they should leave him to it for as long as it took. Only Sally remained whence she'd been, her blue eyes a smouldering mass.

"… And where does that leave me? All on my own, again?" he choked out, breathing heavily as he willed the sailing torrents down his face to cease. Not here, not with them–

A hand came to rest on his left shoulder, a tensely small, but strong one.

"No," the voice said affirmably, yet gently. "Whatever this means, it doesn't mean that you're alone, you have us and–"

Knuckles flinched and slapped her hand away. How _dare_ she touch him now! Sally, _none_ of them had a clue what he felt like right now, and if he'd known what words his race has used for cursing then he'd probably be using them a whole bunch right now. And showing this room his damn emotion, for all the good it was.

All this time he'd been waiting for this day, the day his kind would return from the stars [not that he knew why he'd thought that in the first place, it'd just stuck], and now it was just a nightmare. He truly was alone in this world and universe.

Crushed wasn't half of how low he felt, _him_, the Floating Island's Guardian of all people.

Looking down at the shattered Master Emerald shards, he felt for the first time an unrecognisable feeling, and accompanying it on horseback and carriage was only one strand of thought:

_Just what is the point of my life? My island… Everything?_

As spiritual as he'd always been, the lack of response, again, had been expected.

The sudden storm of white light hadn't, however. And whilst it was electing annoying gasps and yells from Sonic and the rest, to Knuckles, now at breaking point, it meant only one thing.

Tikal would show him the answers he now wanted.

Come hell or high water.

* * *

The white light enveloped them all, surrounding the ensemble for a sizable period as they sailed up times rivers. Not that Knuckles thought anyone but himself really believed in that, despite having vaguely eluded it as such before heading to the Egg Carrier. And this assessment only conceded with what Sonic yelled out next, visibly freaked.

"Wha? Where did all this light come from, you're blinding me here people!"

The annoying hero was beginning to bug the crimson echidna once again, but he couldn't care enough to shout at the minute, so he merely grunted his next choice of words.

"Shout up you blue buffoon. This is Tikal guiding us, as I told you all before. She obviously has something to show us," Knuckles replied solemnly, a thin slice of hope still resonating in his tone.

"So we're travelling back in time you're saying?" Rotor asked, perplexed, having long since reinforced the idea into the back of his mind, but now the whirring cogs were beginning to turn and the excited 'gift of the techno gab', as christened by Sonic and Bunnie, awaken on his tongue.

The idea had crossed his mind, but not knowing even the common science fiction depictions of time travel, the Guardian merely shrugged awkwardly.

"Gosh, that's mighty beautiful, having so much faith in her," Bunnie cooed warmly, shaking back her long, cared for hair, feathery like silk and flax.

Knuckles didn't take heed of what the southern woman had actually said, his thoughts still struggling to remain stable and still hurting, but the meaning of her words touched him nevertheless. It was slightly reassuring and Tikal's name soothed him a little too, for one reason or another. It was after this small bubble of positivity that the Guardian then felt a bit guilty for slapping Sally away so suddenly, so he'd just quietly told her he was sorry for doing so when the twisting strands of white light spiralled into the centre of the space, before rocketing out and causing everything to be painted in it.

* * *

Imagery of a shrine on fire in the distance coursed through the front of their minds; there was no other perspective because they couldn't feel or see their bodies at all, so all they were now were disembodied voices.

"What iz going on here? And– Eek!" Antoine screamed. "why iz that building on fire?!"

"I think it had something to do with Tikal's father…?" came a far-away, solemn reply from Knuckles, speaking as though memories, forgotten but not lost, were being massaged to the surface.

Their point of view then flew down in front of said shrine, exposing the damage it'd inflicted to at least one species, and one that not even Knuckles had any idea of, even in his seemingly reinvigorated mindset.

They were small, pudgy little guys with what looked to be light blue skin, almost simmering, and yellow dollops on their teardrop heads and rounded feet, though the hungry flames could've been distorting the hues slightly. What the Freedom Fighters and Knuckles weren't being hoodwinked over was just how innocent these fallen had all been, they simply exuded it. It looked like this shrine may have been their home and sanctuary before whatever happened, happened.

And whilst he couldn't feel himself physically doing it, Antoine imagined himself touching his head and chest in remembrance and granting a wishful journey for them, whilst Knuckles and the others muttered a silent prayer.

Their viewpoint then became static as the shrine, flames and the fallen melted away into white tendrils, which then pulled away to reveal a panoramic of what was surely the local landscape. It was a giant garden of jungle foliage that somehow looked even more vividly luscious than the one in the present as it breathed out a sea of mist, and then, all in a second, it was a ravaged land torn asunder with water and fire.

The trees were skeletons ripped of their outer skins, leaving only hollow husks behind and the flames forced to move onto riper morsels. The wildlife, those not quick enough to foresee and escape the onslaught, almost surely were wiped out, if not by the flames but by the squalls and rising flood waters that swallowed the undergrowths. Behind all this were rows of submerged buildings, like the temple they were currently in, smashed apart like domino pieces, with ghostly figures bobbing on the water's grassy surface.

The need to retch suddenly hit home, but they were merely ethereal observers, so they couldn't, unfortunately for them. The whole scene had just been horrifying, seeing the land as a carcass of its original self. Yet in contrast, it was amazing as to how nature had overcome this calamity and rejuvenated itself, for it showed how strong life's will was. Still, they were thankful when the white light put the curtains on it and whisked them away suddenly, their viewpoint conversing like unwanted static.

"What's going on Knuckles?" Sally voiced with concern. "We're being sent back, right?"

"We better be, I like me in a body, not an invisible skull, thank you very much," came the unmistakable, joking tone of the cobalt blue hedgehog. A yelp of something in French and a southern breezy voice affirmed to the statement merely seconds later as well.

* * *

"Yeah… We're being sent back…" the echidna breathed, a concoction of sadness and frustration evident. As still, despite this assumed visual resolution to his questions, it just made Knuckles' heart ache even worse. Seeing the dead and the sheer destruction that the water monster Chaos had inflicted would surely haunt his nightmares for years to come.

And as he felt his physical body coming back into being, along with the others around him, he wondered just why Tikal how obliged to show him it, especially _now_, after finding out her and the rest of the race's ultimate fates.

He thought hardly, recalling the last lone encounter he'd had with the echidna spirit.

Something about it stuck out in his memories, but what was it? His head felt so spacey that his vision crystallised, blurred, then cleared and finally blurred again.

Flickering twilight… Gentle, azure pools… Tendrils and shadows adored the shrine…

Peachy fur, covered with whites, blues, greens and gold's … A flash of dark green… That ephemeral breathy tone of voice… A big diamond-cut emerald…

_The Master Emerald!_ He exclaimed upon this realisation, holding his necklace of shards tightly. And then the Guardian's mind suddenly became crystal clear, as though someone had flicked a switch in the brain area that controlled memory.

Spectres of six other diamond-cut gems, undoubtedly the Chaos Emeralds when they'd been only seven, not split into fourteen, were hazily outlined on the other pedestals around the shrine, now no longer there.

A loud, primal roar, Chaos, shattered any deeper thoughts on the ancient splitting of the emeralds and instead allowed more pieces to fit into place…

_I know now what I have to do._

The twisting forms of rough-to-the-touch, dark browns and vivid greens, laced with dewdrops rippled into existence right around the Guardian. The air was mostly dry from the sun overhead, which came raining down in sparse beams. Before he could blink and make a move, a dashing of cobalt blue, oaky creams, luscious yellows and auburn formed into Sally and the others, just ahead of him, their backs turned. He was right out of their line of sight.

_That's good_, Knuckles mused thoughtfully, his subconscious already mapping the best route, I_ have no time to waste_. They'll understand, the crimson echidna figured. Probably.

So with his heart gravitating towards his destination, Knuckles the emotionally broken became Knuckles the hunter, the strong and determined, and without a sound he disappeared into the jungle labyrinth.

It was time to repair the Master Emerald, which would then restore his island to the heavens.

And then, just maybe, he could see Tikal… one last time.

* * *

**Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream**

* * *

And thus ends the twenty-first chapter of this story arc!

* * *

After the last two chapters I [and the characters I'd have imagined] needed a break from all the action, so this one was a time to slow things down and unearth some more mythos.

Did you like my depiction of the temples interior as a whole and the slightly revised mural?

[Considering the lack of clear images, I had to go to town on the description I felt]

This begins laying down the stepping stones for the upcoming finale [just two more chapters to go till then].

The beginning of 2010 should see this story finished at last?!

* * *

Chapter six has been streamlined [the flashbacks now all being from Amy's PoV, as well as the final portion], and the previous chapter has been spell checked and elements further explained [i.e. where the missile came from and Robotnik's sudden disappearance which allowed for Tails to disarm the bomb, as well as the time needed to fetch his Egg Walker].

I hope you enjoyed this, and the chapters so far, any comments or ratings would be nice and appreciated! ^-^

* * *

'**My Sacrifice' is the next chapter.**

Take care ya'll ***smiley face***


	24. My Sacrifice, Part I

**Disclaimer**: _I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "**Change The World**" by ARTIST Dream

* * *

**CHAPTER 22: My Sacrifice, Part 1**

[_AMY'S POV_]

Everything was a blur.

Having budged my way out of the crowd outside the train station, with relative ease, I was pegging it up Main Street, past the gaudy, and rather _plain_ looking towers actually, I thought, having grown used to seeing them _every_ day for a year. Knothole and the Great Forest, whilst comparative to the fact they were just the same trees and huts [or at least they were all living in such when I left, I thoughtfully interjected], at least exuded vividness and warmth.

But oh yes, as I was saying, I was running, and so fast that to any passerby it probably looked as though I was running from a tornado, but I wasn't. Furthermore, had I'd diverged just why I was sprinting, a stitching pain now in my gut, then they'd figure me insane too; putting an occasion ahead of a death [or _deaths_ as this case could be], but I'd promised to have been there. And I didn't like breaking promises.

_It's not like I'm abandoning Sonic and the others_, I brazenly thought in defence of my actions, I just had some things to deal with… and decide first before I could see them again, in whatever state they were in.

Blood-stained imagery, of bodies to be more precise, filled my head, shrouded by an amber black inferno.

My stomach rolled, leaving me literally waiting to hurl, but I willed down the disgusting bile and shook my head and such thoughts away. I decided to focus on my surroundings, slowing my sprint into slow, but lengthy strides.

The sky, whilst its usual summer clear blue, wasn't all that captivating because of it, seeing as I'd been the same all day so far… So my eyes drifted back to earth and onto the folk that lived and scurried on it. Or I _would_ have, but then I realised that Main Street, which I was now at the end of, was empty.

Well, other than myself.

_Huh_, I thought dumbfoundly. _Main Street is never empty_, I continued in disbelief, recalling a bag crazed shopping incident in particular.

So just what was going on here? Surely the Egg Carrier wreckage couldn't be that interesting unless–

On the corner, just around from Amber's restaurant, I gasped, freezing like a statue.

Unless they'd been bodies.

Crimson mixed with dashes of darkened creams, purples and blues eclipsed my vision once again, and faded away just as quickly, like spectres cackling on the wind.

I don't recall how long I spaced out; I just knew that I had when the city slid back into view and I was still where I'd been before, on the corner from Amber's restaurant.

But now, now I was unsure of just what to do.

A summer shiver flowed over me, only adding to my unease, and causing me to instinctively wrap my arms around myself. People would have stared surely at such an action, but like I'd mentioned there was [still] no one around.

I stood there for a while, allowing myself to press up against the nearby brick wall as I considered my options; namely, had I done the right thing in leaving Tails to go ahead alone? He was a bright boy, that was something no one could take away from him, but he was still young at heart, younger than me. Could he, _should_ he carry the burden alone [if there are bodies]?

_No, he shouldn't_, I dismissed swiftly, feeling a little revolted over just what ideas prang amongst the subconscious and rise unhindered to my surface of awareness.

I hated those times, but I didn't need a moment more to make my decision, for no one should have to do that alone. If there were any bodies… then I would have to identify them, being Tails' elder. Amber would insist, of course, but this wasn't her closure to partake in.

And that was why I needed to make haste back to the station; there were newspapers [and reporters] aplenty there. They'd know all the details by now.

They had to.

So I twisted myself back around, basking myself once more in the midmorning sunlight that licked the gravelled concrete roads (and tarmac pavements), ready to stride the fifteen minute or so walk back to the train station outskirts.

So that's what I did. One stumbled step at a time – that is until I heard it. The distinct 'ding' of a bell, and most likely the one from Amber's restaurant, so I quickened my pace.

"Amy, there you are!" bellowed a familiar voice behind me, a cocktail of happiness and stern disappointment.

I froze on the spot, scrunching my eyes up in tense anticipation.

It was Amber, which meant there was no escape now.

I was busted.

* * *

**SUNKEN EGG CARRIER AIRSPACE / NEAR STATION SQUARE / 10:59 PM**

[GAMMA_'S POV_]

"_Jet Booster at 82% efficiency... Power at 48% efficiency... I must come to rest soon_," I reiterated in drones to none but my robotic self, before adding inwardly, and quietly so that no one but I could hear it: _Then I must finish my mission._

It was still an… odd… _feeling_, being able to calculate and plan for one automation's self, but I was getting the hang of it. Not that I'd need it's… _useful_… services for but about 3,600 ticks more.

At first I'd thought it an invading infection, back on the Egg Carrier when my Ma… _former_… Master, Dr Robotnik had commanded me to terminate the cobalt blue hedgehog, Sonic, and my internal systems had seized up. The electronic connections between my legs, arms and blaster had been flickered out and static had flooded my visors of vision. I'd been rendered completely immobile.

_DAY 3: LOG 1_

When the static _had_ cleared, a charging blue blur was in my sights and precisely two seconds from colliding into my robotic hide. Those razor sharp spines, despite being connected to a short-furred layer of flesh, would've torn my outer shell to pieces. The terminator was about to be the _terminated_.

And it was then that another spike of something foreign occurred, just like with the 'Big event' [as I'd catalogued two days previously], but unlike then, I'd recognised it and grasped it [anything to make me feel something other than useless and trapped].

It was fear. I, Gamma, a robot who by their very _definition_ were devoid of 'feelings' was now 'feeling' emotion, and the one that fell and ascended civilisations of flesh creatures.

It made no intelligible sense, but it'd happened, and I was going to be deleted [to use a non-sentient term]. Or at least the calculated probability of that event had led to that conclusion.

Then _she_ had stepped in front of me.

The one called Amy Rose. The pink hedgehog, smaller than me, was now my only shield between me and utter obliteration.

I'd never been bestowed with much information on her by Dr Robotnik [presumably he thought of her as I initially did, just a mere helpless female], so I couldn't have known that she and the blue hedgehog had a connection to one another.

The two Mobians had conversed, leading to the hedgehog male to stand down his offensive.

I didn't know whether to be glad or confused…So I'd remained whence I was, whilst Dr Robotnik had been shouting obscenities at me and them all, thereafter.

I'd finally given up on analysing the situation so I had switched into my streamlined land form and propelled myself away, with no destination in mind, when she, _Amy Rose_, had turned to face me and spoke _kind_ words once again.

"Are you okay?"

"It's dangerous here. Don't pay attention to Robotnik anymore, so free yourself – come on!"

My highly optimised crafted ear pieces had heard the pink hedgehog's light voice perfectly, but my sensory systems only lingered on the bird, a coat of sky blue, which was in her company, flapping _casually_ and _free_. It had a lime green locket around its neck too.

A siphon of word constructs then suddenly obscured my vision:

_Flicky, Flickies… Flickies Island mainly… Tropical coloured plumage, large yellow feet, small wings, beak and tuff of hair… Eat Fruit, Nuts, Insects…. Have 2-4 chicks from spring to summer… Live for 7-10 years… Are physically weak and trusting… Can utilize Power Ring energies… _

Then it all went without warning, as though it'd never been there at all [and a quick scan of my memory banks confirmed my troubled suspicions, _none_ of it had been in there]. It was… _troubling_.

If I'd have been consciously programmed with such a trait, my temperament would've been 'red-hot' at that. All these anomalies!

That day with the big cat, Big, the pink hedgehog, Amy Rose, and now this blue _Flicky_.

I shook erratically as electronic responses between my CPU and the rest of my body had began to slow, my cooling system failing for no logical reason, which had lead my CPU bank to overheat and spark from the sheer overload of anomalies that I'd triggered in my short powered '_life_'.

I didn't have a word for what had happened back then, as spasms of static had threatened to trail down my visionary sensors once more, but now I do…

It was, as she had said back then, a pity that love had never been primary programmed into me.

* * *

So regulating power back to my core I'd then regained prime control of my systems, before looking down, her vital spots and heat signature filling my spherical, glass green eyes, as I questioned my own set of protocols openly out loud for the first time.

"_Why are you helping me?_" I'd said, sounding almost _stubborn_ as I continued to replay the scene over in my memory banks. And I wasn't that, I was just efficient at what I did…

"I said we'll be friends and I'm returning your favour," she'd replied, again in that _kind_ vocal tone. "Even this birdy wants you to be free," she'd then said, before the blue 'Flicky' flapped on the spot in front of me. It didn't compute for me. Why was this bird of flesh so unafraid of me, its superior in intellect, body and prowess? Did it know something that I didn't?

_Unfathomable surely…_ had constructed itself within the contained boundaries of my black vocal output-input receiver, where I could not touch or hear it, only see it. And then it'd gone, like many recorded Mystic Ruin folktales would classify as only a 'ghost' would.

The vibrating folds of a larynx component, the 'voice box' as nicknamed by fleshy creatures, had alerted me to the fact Amy was speaking once more to me. Whilst the exact science of how it worked was held within my data banks [specifically in conjunction with how to collapse it efficiently], the way such creatures of flesh commanded its complexities with such ease _puzzled_ me now.

"Robotnik's not the kind of man you should work for," she'd warned, putting extra tension on her tone by clenching her larynx muscles together.

After that Amy Rose had spoken no more, instead locking her spherical irises with my own glassy ones, which I calculated on the spot to the highest probability that it was because the hedgehog female had wanted me to speak.

But I'd had no words to give. What could I say? I was a robot created to serve and guard my creator, Dr Robotnik, I knew nothing else, and I wasn't sure that I wanted to.

Serving my duty I'd have a purpose for existing, without it… surely I'd be nothing?

_This does not compute… This does not compute… Rebooting Robotnik insignia Γ… This does not compute… This does not compute…_ _Rebooting Robotnik insignia Γ…_ chimed within my robotic membrane, totally inaudible to all those present.

And without analysing the options I had open to me, something deep within then quickly made the decision for me and cut off the connecting signal protocol, leaving my CPU intact.

I was in control now, I'd deduced.

And that'd given rise to an _interesting_ analyst of her, Amy Rose.

She was what we calculating minds of metallic flesh would deem a wild card, an unknown variable which could alter whole equations from its sheer presence, and she was surely mine.

_Maybe this was my duty all along, to be such a wild card_, I'd finally concluded as I felt the web of electronic connections to my programmed protocols begin to dimmer.

So cocking my gun to the skies without a word, and taking one last, lingering look at Amy, I then changed into my hover mode and glided down to the rocky planet below, the whirring sound of my propeller blades being sucked in by the thundering storm in the skies.

I'd been halfway between the Egg Carrier and the planet's surface [I calculated it to be about seven thousand feet] when I'd begun scanning for a sheltered cave to reside in for the night [I'd draw up a plan of what I was going to do next at first light I told myself].

Because I was a robot, however, I'd ignored the surrounding scenery.

I never calculated that plan or found that perfectly constructed shelter as greens, blues and browns became blaring, dotty static.

Then I'd fallen out of the sky.

* * *

_DAY 3: LOG 2_

Exactly ten minutes later, my crystal-clear vision had come back, but not to my defaulted expectation. Instead flickers of recorded events from my memory banks ran fluidly in my vision. I was unaware of anything else, but I'd tried using my thermal and sound detecting instruments – nothing was out there. Or I was nowhere. It was a puzzling situation.

After a full spin of numeric counting, however, then a spike of activity erupted around me, and I was forced to submit to the multiple memory logs' will.

The first to fill my visionary sensors was one back from that day on the Egg Carrier, four minutes and seven seconds exactly before I'd made first contact with the pink hedgehog, Amy Rose. I'd chosen the wrong door, as always covered with the Robotnik insignia, and had been met with a confusing [and now that I think of it], what a flesh creature would deem a _distressing_ sight.

Spiralling yellowish-gold bands of Lesser Megatal*, the inferior, dull and iron-based alloy of its superior 'cousin', Prime Megatal* [which I am 49.5% made of], whirred around another robotic unit. It was one of my E-Series brothers, the very first one I'd met in fact, _Beta_.

And he'd been in literal pieces, with only his top half still intact. Other pieces unrecognisable to me were being fitted via hooks on the gold bands of Lesser Megatal.

I'd shuddered and recoiled back at the sight, a very fleshy thing to do, and abruptly turned around and left. Witnessing it again through my eyes, disconnected to the former first experience, had opened my digitally cerebral mind to the slim possibility that my actions were emotionally triggered, be it via me, or as I'd been theorising since meeting Amy Rose, that it was via another intelligence inside me…

That'd been _worrying_ to admit to say the least, as no other records in my databases alluded to such a 'ghost in the machine', the nearest flesh term I'd found on the digital web.

The next memory log was that of my first visualisation and moments of life, as I looked into the face of my [former] master, Dr Robotnik. Back then I'd only taken in his physical makeup and his transcending voice [the latter undoubtedly a fact I'd been programmed to resonate to], but now, all I saw was the flick of his slimy tongue licking his lips, as though he may have been hungry, and the small, dark eyes he always hid behind his glasses, as always that peculiar colour, and as hungry as his tongue motion made out to be too.

It was only now that my analysis saw him for the cold tyrant that he was, which must've sparked off the next memory log.

It was my second encounter with the Mobian Maine Coon Cat, Big, which had transpired because I'd been assigned to track down and bring back a certain frog sporting the water creature, Chaos' tail. The frog called 'Froggy' was a companion to Big and so we both converged on the frog's location at the same time.

He had refused to give him over to me [and in turn, Robotnik] and so I'd uttered this:

"_Then you leave me no choice… I must remove you myself._"

Following my declaration we had engaged in a battle of words and attack manoeuvres, until finally he said something that had swayed my duty, just as he had done before, and just like Amy Rose had done twice thereafter, and it was this:

"You're a good guy! You didn't burn down the jungle the other day, not in the end, and with my help! Don't you remember?"

That had spurned my duty, for reasons unfathomable then, and I'd given him direction for his friend, who'd fled during our scuffle, after wildly shaking once more. I'd even wished him '_good luck_'. It was propitious! Then I had left, back to the Egg Carrier to await my punishment for failing my set mission [for the second time].

* * *

Upon my return I learned that I'd not been the only one to fail in my given mission, in fact, all three of my other E-Series brothers had too. They were arguing amongst themselves as I got myself in line, uttering phrases like '_No, my Frog's the right one!_' and '_No, mine is!_'. Regardless of what any of us said, we'd all gotten the wrong frog [or in my case, no _Froggy_ at all]. Master Robotnik had been very angry about it and called us all 'dummies'.

"All you worthless heap's of junk, be gone!" Robotnik howled suddenly, before pressing a small remote button, which caused a flash of greenish blue light to envelop my brothers.

Epsilon had shuddered violently before the light had distorted its figure and made it disappear on the spot. Zeta and Delta [who'd looked especially longingly at me, I re-witnessed] had followed right after it; everyone was gone, except me.

I'd been very confused as to why that had been, my databanks regurgitated to me [now].

Whether they had been teleported elsewhere for punishment or ripped apart by the very beam of light I'd had no idea. It didn't make reliving the experience any easier, I felt so _sorry_ for them…

The anger my former Master had eluded towards my brothers was only half of what I'd then experienced, for Robotnik had been especially angry at me, his mouth frothing something slimy, before he'd then locked me away in the same cell as Amy Rose had been. He said he'd witnessed me help her escape, in-between curses, and he said that he'd punish me later for my betrayal.

That never came to be.

Just mere hours later, the vessel had come under attack, and being the only active special forces robot on board, Robotnik had let me free and ordered me to come to the main deck. He'd never told me why.

* * *

After a time my visionary sensors had hummed slowly to life as the rest of my systems came online, crystal-clear colour, heat signatures and the rest had all become visible and interact able again. I'd done a quick system scan nevertheless, the results concluding that everything was fully operational; I had no viruses or anomalies in my robotic shell.

I'd highly doubted it at that point, but decided to at least see where I'd fallen before deciding what to do next. To the highest probability before I'd blacked out, my surroundings had still been that of the Mystic Ruins Zone. Or to be more accurate, I'd been amongst multiple trees branches, my metallic hide covered with fresh water droplets, in the Mystic Ruins Zone.

My body had been in an _awkward_ position, my right leg stuck between two branches and my left arm bent right over another. It would take some vigorous movement, or some well aimed blaster shots with my right arm, in order to free myself.

Being a robot I should've had some degree of patience, but for this I had none, I'd just wanted to get out of here and fly into the sky, where I'd be free to analyse my current situation and plan the best possibilities I had available to me. And so I'd gone with the latter option, and that tree was soon bare without its branches. Not that it'd affected me in any way, naturally. It was just a tree, a single one amongst thousands in the area.

As I'd taken flight, however, the previous logged sequences then flashed behind my eyes, and continued again and again, like a call from another system awaiting a reply. Except I didn't _know_ what it wanted from me – what could something possibly want from _me_? I knew no one else but Robotnik, Amy Rose and my brothers, and they were nowhere in the vicinity.

I'd known one thing; however, I couldn't take any more of this, I didn't _want_ any more of this. So after more flickers of my brothers vanishing beside me had come and gone, I'd then made my first rogue decision, and it'd felt _good_ then [and much better now]. But first I'd wanted to be free of one thing from my system, just in case it alerted _him_ of my activities and whereabouts.

So interfacing again with that spidery web with all the power I could muster, I'd overrun my programmed registration insignia. It'd been the most power demanding thing I'd ever done, it'd taken less _will_ [and power] to ignite and use that flamethrower I'd been assigned that day than this, but eventually the tendrils of code that made the program up sparked before facing permanent deletion. I was the victor.

"_Dr Robotnik… Enemy… Master registration… Deleted…_" I'd uttered to myself, still flying through the clear sky, covered with pulses of blue.

The action had resulted in a smoother flow of data within my digital matrix, now that the spidery web was gone, and there'd been no calls of duty being uttered to me. I was now in full control and that felt good. It also meant I was able to fully interact with my databanks, now nothing was encrypted from me, and that'd led to a great discovery.

Three pools of light appeared on my radar, one that had a range of about five miles [when fully unhindered by distorting obstacles, be they physical or not], and within thirty one seconds exactly I'd confirmed that the energy signatures were unique only to the E-Series class. And so it'd appeared to be that the former theory of mine from the previous day was fact – something I'd uttered with great pride to the skies above. Being a robot I couldn't care less what heard – I didn't get 'flustered' as creatures of flesh do.

"_E-Series… Friends…Must save…_"

Now free to do my own duty, I'd headed in the direction of the nearest signature.

It was less than a mile from my current location.

_Perfect_, I'd thought to myself gladly.

* * *

_DAY 4: LOG 1_

The target location had been on an elevated plateau of sorts just above the jungle foliage and near one of its smaller lakes. There was also a small wooden cabin, totally vacant and certainly nothing out of the ordinary [some flesh creatures liked to settle themselves away from developed civilisations, for one reason or another, my databanks had pointed out to me], but beyond its 'homely' exterior the settlement had an array of materials within it and also traces of very chaotic energy.

_Very interesting_... I'd thought. But more so had been the figure standing outside it clad in blue and black silver. I didn't need to scan it with my sensors to know who it was; I'd recognise Delta, E-103 δ anywhere. However the abrupt reunion had got me thinking [something which no longer really bothered me, something I put down to the removal of Robotnik's registration program]:

Had Robotnik sent it after the Freedom Fighters, who'd survived the crash of the Egg Carrier somehow?

I'd saw no other reason for him to have the remaining E-Series models all out at once.

As I gotten closer, landing about halfway along the long stretch of land by the cabin, it was only then that I'd noticed that he had new parts; to be precise he had rocket arm attachments on each arm. They looked very similar to what Beta used to have in fact.

"_Delta, it's me Gam–_" I greeted, only to have an blue plasma laser roar over the crown of my head.

Following that there had been no reasoning with him and we'd fought, both fully utilizing our Jet Boosters as we danced lasers across the sky. I'd never seen any of my brothers in battle, save for Beta, but it'd appeared that Delta's systems had been powered up slightly with his revised model. Nevertheless, aside from a small burn mark on the left side of my metallic chest plate and some remodelling of the hut's garage roof, I'd forced him to his knees.

"_Delta, do you still wish to fight me? All I'm trying to do is save you_," I'd stated.

He had come again at me, like a wild animal, not speaking a word. I don't think he even had an output function in his voice box anymore. I hadn't wanted it to have been this way [though I'd had no plan in mind for riding the registration program from my brothers' systems I'd _grudgingly_ admitted to myself], but Delta had forced my hand and so I'd freed him in the only other way I could compute.

I'd blown him up with a fully charged shot from my arm blaster, leaving all but smoking blackened remains as I walked away, the first part of my duty done.

A familiar tweeting, seconds later, had caused me to whirr around in surprise. It'd been another of those _Flickies_, a light green feathered one this time, and it was relatively, surprisingly unhurt, only trace charred dust on its body as it flew away.

I'd stared on after it long after it it'd vanished into the horizon before I'd taken to the skies, tracking the next nearest brother of mine.

_DAY 4: LOG 2_

Not long after freeing Delta is when it'd first become apparent, when I first heard them, countless wavelengths that I'd never heard before.

I was entirely prone to them now my shield was gone, it seemed.

The first 'infection' of emotion had been with the addition of some of the pink hedgehog's vocabulary into my own, gushing out at involuntary times, such as:

"_Robotnik's a bad man; I must save my E-Series brothers from him…_"

And then the bleeps of radio wavelengths from Station Square had come, the first talking about the crash of the Egg Carrier vessel in the sea near the city. It'd all been like the insistent buzzing of flies in my ear pieces back then, but I'd eventually figured out how to tune them in and out as I instructed [though random utterances by Amy, Robotnik and Big still came whenever they wished].

It was… _ironic_, really, how my metallic crafted self was so easily affiliated with such emotion, and by the whims of two flesh creatures no less. It was a _confusing_ predicament, but in the hours to come I'd accepted it and was even sure that I'd uncover its mysteries once my duty had been accomplished one way or another…

I'd not decided then what I stand by now, but first I'd another brother to save, who was many miles to the west.

His signature had been very faint, meaning he was likely deep underground somewhere.

It was going to be a long journey… _but I had to save buddy! _I'd thought before I could erase it.

* * *

_DAY 4: LOG 3_

And it turned out to be factually correct; it _had_ been a long journey, specifically because first I'd had to go all the way out to the deeper jungle area [the same area of the Mystic Ruins where I'd first met the Big the Maine Coon] and fly across to this peculiar island in the middle of the greater lake. That leg of the journey in its entirety had depleted a sizable portion of my power reserves.

My next brother hadn't been on the island mainland, though. He'd been underneath the highest rocky mountain, which I'd accessed via a rumble-infested crater, and my sensors had indicated that it was highly likely that it'd been at the epicentre of an eruption in recent years. I didn't know what that could've been, nor had I cared, so I'd quickly descended into the fiery caverns below.

_*Play Sonic 3 & Knuckles – Lava Reef Act 1*_

The temperatures had been around two hundreds of degrees, enough to burn alive the typical flesh creature, but deeper inside and a couple of miles beneath me they'd been cooler, changing the surrounding environment completely. I'd gone from the fiery [but inactive] volcano to the outskirts of something else.

It'd been outside a stone archway, covered in crystallised magma of blues, greens and purples, which would be aesthetically pleasing to a creature of flesh I calculated with a reasonable amount of probability. Traces of that chaotic 'chaos energy' lingered deeper inside, but that hadn't been of any concern to me, for my orange clad brother, E-104 ε, had been stood outside it, presumably drawn in by the abundance of the aforementioned energy. Maybe it'd been part of his set mission, I didn't know, but I was to bring it to an end.

Epsilon had not a choice in the matter.

As I'd expected, his memory banks had also been wiped and compromised, and so we had fought on the small platform of hardened magma, which in turn had been surrounded by waves of gushing molten lava. My first course of action had been to assess whether Epsilon had been upgraded too as I scanned over his metallic body.

He now had been equipped with twin STINGER missile launcher arms instead of one, which had been difficult to shield against. Luckily the rocky terrain proved to be to my advantage, using my clear computer brain [not my brothers' wild minded vision] to use discarded rock pieces as a shield against Epsilon's missiles, before ducking out and blasting him down whilst he recharged.

Upon Epsilon's explosive defeat, a Yellow Flicky was released once more into the wild, prompting a _curious_ pattern to develop within my digital matrix.

I'd left the reef of lava swiftly after the fact.

* * *

_DAY 4: LOG 4_

It'd been sometime after four in the morning when I left that floating island behind, the skies coated in dark blue, the clouds now having moved on.

"_E103 Delta… E-104 Epsilon… Rescue mission accomplished…_" I'd droned to myself, inwardly _pleased_ with my accomplishments so far as I cut my way through these dark skies.

_I could get used to having such freedom_, I'd thought then.

"_E-105 Zeta… E-101 Beta… Location unknown,_" I'd uttered thereafter, thinking back to the mission. And I _hate_ not knowing things.

A familiar whir brought me to attention, followed by a harmless white light, flickers of the top half of Beta lying in that small room erupted inside my computing brain.

"_Perhaps… aboard the Egg Carrier?_" I questioned somewhat quietly seconds after the vision had come and gone, my robotic voice just above twenty decibels. The notion of freedom I was getting comfortably used to, but questioning my own self was still very… _flesh_-like, and so was _unnerving_.

So with my mission still to accomplish, I'd sent out a scanning beacon as I stood perched atop the cliff's edge, just a few kilometres from the Freedom Fighter's cabin lab.

All had been _irritably_ quiet for a minute or two, and I'd thought it to be a failure when a ringing sound soared through the air and straight into the side of my head. My audio input devices had instantly re-routed it for data processing in my computing brain, and being as efficient as I was, it'd taken less than thirty seconds to triangulate the beacon's returning location:

_Emerald Sea / F5_

The co-ordinates surely must have belonged to the downed Egg Carrier, but that wasn't what I'd primarily wanted to confirm; whether it was floating or on the seabed _is_ what'd wanted to know, for I was not that resistant to long periods in [and especially under] water.

The clean and minimal distortion in the returning sound meant that it hadn't met much resistance, so the Egg Carrier _was_ still afloat out there.

For now, at least, the logistics rang true in my computing core.

So not wasting another second, I'd blasted off towards the southern seas, and as I did so, two things had happened.

Number one, the gentle curve of the dark blue horizon slowly changed into a milky blue. The cycle of time deemed 'morning' was coming at a fast pace.

Number two, a crackle in my ear pieces gave way to rushed, hushed voices of flesh creatures, feminine and masculine ones, talking about a loud booming sound, a probable aircraft crash. It hadn't been the Station Square radio this time, but one of its news channels.

The conclusion was obvious; I didn't have much time before my visit would be interrupted by the nosy flesh creatures.

I'd swiftly re-routed power form other system processes, doubling the power in my jet booster and rocketed off into the lightening skies, the sun a mere speck on the curved horizon.

My time was indeed running out.

* * *

_DAY 4: LOG 5_

As I'd arrived in the co-ordinated airspace the hull of the Egg Carrier had caught my sensors' eye, and I'd scanned it to see where the weak structural points were; they'd been at the very base of the vessel [buried several feet underwater], which were mostly torn apart upon impact I calculated. And this was coupled with a curious hole that plunged right from the top tower to the base – the sheer, random damage suggested an explosive device, and one lit at the very last second.

The top deck had been split into two, leaving a small ravine, and one that'd ultimately sink the vessel whole.

_Had that been a last offensive by Robotnik's side or the Freedom Fighters?_ I'd wondered.

Not that it mattered who was alive, if any, they were of no importance to me.

"_Landing preparations complete…_" I'd confirmed out loud, slowing down my copter blades and accessing the measurements of the deck ravine; it's length had been far greater than its width, a mere three and a half feet across, but it'd suffice. My blaster could also lend its hand if I needed it, of course too.

As I'd slowly worked my 825.256 kg of weight down into the flickering darkness, however, the pink hedgehog, Amy Rose, again appeared to sight, the way I'd last left her. Which didn't mean a thing, of course, and I somehow knew that'd be the last time I would see her somehow, even then. That didn't bother me…

The last spits of electricity had illuminated what remained of the Egg Carrier's hub area, and had I'd been a creature of flesh, the combined, concentrated odours of salt, oil and fish probably would've caused one to retch. Now there hadn't been much to see down here, the impact rapture proving too much for the structure; some doors remained, but I'd calculated that blockages would've been highly probable, so I didn't try any of them. The communications networks also had been [mostly] down.

"_E-Series data… Beginning search…_" I'd uttered slowly, before waiting for the reply from my databanks.

It'd come within six point five seconds, which was acceptable.

"_Engine Room: E-Series location confirmed._"

Knowing where I had to go had led me then to the next logical problem, the one of how I was going to get there. I couldn't swim underwater for long periods, so that option had been rejected from the offset, and there hadn't been a ravine I could transverse either.

The sparking lights from above had begun to less and less, from six seconds to every nine seconds. The main generators would run out within the hour I'd calculated, but there was probably a backup grid somewhere…

My eventual focus had come to rest on the squared structure that sat in the central vicinity of the room; I'd recognised it despite never having needed to use its services as the monorail train which acted as the elevator between the top and basement levels of the Egg Carrier.

It'd had a few scratches and quarter-like chunks missing from its main control carriage and some thereafter, but it was in a workable condition. From just fiddling with the main controls I'd unsurprisingly discovered that it had no power.

It'd still been connected to the power grid which ran throughout the floating vessel, however, so whilst it'd taken a few minutes to run diagnostics and then rewire the main console, it hadn't been hard to achieve. The orange glow flowing into the console was near-instantaneous; the monorail had enough power to get me down there at least, so that's what I did. A series of thudding sounds had followed me into the hole of darkness that'd opened up from below, straight into the heart of the Egg Carrier.

The journey downward had taken almost eight minutes, at a speed that was just below reasonable, which'd no doubt been affected by the wrecked structure and weakening power grid. Still, it got me to the engine room outskirts in one piece, which is all I'd cared for.

As the reinforced green doors had slid open, my scanners had detected a number of active units. I stopped my movement. _That can't be right…_ I'd thought, so I'd scanned the surrounding area again. The units had still remained, red hazes in the distance, just standing still, as if waiting for something, or guarding something even.

None of them were E-Series, though, just Class C Badniks.

If robots such as I could've smirked, I probably would've then, Badniks were far inferior models and thus no danger at all. And in those few moments I'd decided that I didn't _care_ why they were there, just that they were in my way, so I'd shot them all to pieces.

* * *

The metallic, various colour striped passageways to the engine room itself had been crumpled inwards, now a series of angled platforms. The air space had been sufficient enough to fly through however. Water flowed in from below, the sparking lights above tinting it the colour red. I would've been lucky to reach the E-Series unit down here without having to touch the stuff.

I hadn't been that lucky, for after flying over the still steaming turning cogs and some conveyer belts, I'd come to land outside the grinning insignia of Robotnik plastered on a black sliding door which had been sparsely covered in water. The stinky fluid had clung to my undersides like a hungry rat. As I'd approached the door it'd opened, revealing to my visual sensors just what had become of the last E-Series unit, Zeta.

The purple clad robot had been hooked up to a large machine sitting atop a platform of four spherical pipes, overlooking the room as though it was a giant. And now, through its upgrade, Zeta mustered seven advanced missile launchers. I'd halted my approach instantly, for this had changed everything. He outnumbered me six times over by his sole self! It was then that my computing brain realised that Zeta wasn't just hooked up to the defensive machine, he _was_ the machine.

And a very deadly one at that.

The stainless floor was covered with a foot depth of water, and the room was surrounded by small, deeper pools of the stuff, some even had small fish swimming in it. I didn't know how far down we'd been currently situated, only that the Egg Carrier itself was 789 meters across, but it must've been pretty deep. And the lights, now light blue, were still on here, so the machine Zeta had been made a part of I calculated to be the backup power generator. And a quick scan of it revealed a healthy output of power going one way, which would be the monorail, meaning Zeta had more than enough power to outlast me and possibly even the final sinking of the Egg Carrier.

Even if I hadn't already made it my duty to save him from Robotnik's protocol, the thought of my brother here continuing to live and plan down on the seabed had sent small sparks running around in my back, in a way similar to flesh creatures' shivers of fear.

It was an interesting emotion, but not one I'd ever liked.

But bringing myself back from needless thoughts I'd cocked my blaster ready for the inevitable brawl ahead. I'd known that extreme caution was what I needed to take; now I knew what I was up against, so I'd limited my motional speed to a sound level of less than twenty decibels to avoid detection.

Five steps inside and I'd sniped a shot at its metallic cranium, and had got a chunk of its lower left side of its face off. It was a poor reward, but I'd succeeded in startling my brother, which'd give me sufficient time to–

E 105 ζ had never given me the chance, and a roar of hot lead slammed into my central chest area and right leg. He'd been trying to maim me useless to make for easier extermination, his brutal 'hot-headedness' seemingly having survived the data wipe of its original CPU.

I was stronger than that, so I'd opted for the air over the water covered platform, taking considerable aim at one of his missile launchers. It'd exploded, but then so did the other six, all with fiery missiles aimed at me.

_This may be a problem_, I'd thought.

After some ducking and sharp manoeuvring, I'd shot three of them clean out of the air, with the other three hitting home. The rupturing of my chest had sent internal systems into cooling mode to contend with the severe hot temperatures, as well as power conserving modes, for some of my wiring now hung out for every robot to see. My left arm had also been blown off. Luckily it'd gotten the wrong arm, and it was then I'd kinda hoped that I'd originally had two blaster arms implemented...

That dwelling thought soon ended, however, for it was useless to do so, and especially now.

It'd been a good blow, but as of yet, not fatal. Still, I didn't need to have a supreme intellect to know that the next one was more likely to terminate me. I needed to act _fast_, and that's what I'd done.

In the end my superior speed had won out, all the missile launchers destroyed before my blaster blew open Zeta's head with a loud and illuminating light. This time I'd not been sure that the inevitable Flicky would survive, but it did, and with a tweet the red Flicky had quickly flown out of the open door, which I calculated to be because of the depleting oxygen supply down here. Not that it mattered to me, of course.

Following a loud, groaning sound from the ceiling I'd still flown swiftly out of that room, and the vessel itself, however.

And now my mission had finally been accomplished.

_[END SYSTEM LOGS]_

Flying off the sinking vessel I'd saw that the milky blue skies had faded into mute and unchanging blues, mostly cloudless, but that aside, I had no reason to remain, so I'd left its airspace swiftly.

Minutes later and a spark of radio interference had again hummed within me.

"There's panic on the streets of Station Square… a bomb… by Dr. Robotnik…" A female voice had read out in a panic.

So Robotnik at least was alive then. Not that I cared.

"_Jet Booster at 82% efficiency... Power at 48% efficiency... I must come to rest soon._"

I had cared about my ailing power, though, which was what I was dealing with now.

* * *

I was too far from the mainland to risk it, it was highly improbable that I'd make it, but the Egg Carrier was only five minutes away, and if I could find my way back to the monorail then I'd have all the power I needed.

I'd need it all to self-terminate myself efficiently; _something Zeta had lent a helping hand to_, I thought.

It'd been something I'd been thinking about since leaving Delta's hollow shell. Namely that I had no other duty in the world – not after freeing my brother's, and so logic pointed out that I would most likely also have a Flicky inside me, one that needed to be free, no… _deserved_ to be free.

Robotnik had filled the world with enough robots anyway, and a robot not loyal to him would be found and destroyed sooner or later. So by doing this now, in under the hour, I would go out by my own will, and that was fine with me.

The fading moon loomed high above the Egg Carrier on the horizon, the later quickly grower bigger as I closed the gap.

"_Jet Booster at 77% efficiency... Power at 46% efficiency..._"

It was still floating, so I slowed my copter blades down and manoeuvred my way to the top deck. The vessel was going to hit the seabed in the next hour or two anyway, so I may as well help it on its way… I thought. Death not scaring me at all, for that was beyond me.

"Landing preparations complete… What is this?" I droned, my robotic tone hiccupping, I couldn't believe what my scanners' were depicting.

And before I could verify it, the subject in question had come to me, looming over me like a great shadow. My big brother… _Beta_.

And then he fired.

* * *

XXXXX

**Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream**

XXXXX

* * *

And thus ends the first part of the twenty-second chapter of this story arc!

The 'Megatal' alloy described in this chapter was derived from the very same that STC [Sonic the Comic, the former UK-only Sonic comic of the 90s] conjured up. It was originally going to be called 'Mobimantium', as a nod to the fictional man-made alloy, _Adamantium_, created and made famous by Marvel's long-running X-Men comic series, but I thought I'd use something at least canon [to one Sonic continuity] and familiar [again to those who know that continuity] instead.

* * *

Just the last prelude to the finale to go now… The beginning of 2010 should see this story finished at last?!

The previous chapter has been revised for spelling, grammar and plain reading inconsistencies, as has chapter seven and eight.

I hope you enjoyed this, and the chapters so far, any comments or ratings would be nice and appreciated! ^-^

Take care ya'll ***smiley face***


	25. My Sacrifice, Part II

**Disclaimer**: _I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "**Change The World**" by ARTIST Dream

* * *

**CHAPTER 22: My Sacrifice, Part 2**

**MYSTIC RUINS ZONE / NEAR TAILS HOUSE / 12:27 PM**

[_AMY'S POV_]

"I still can't believe it," I exclaimed as we walked. I really couldn't.

For you see, after Amber and Zack had spotted me back in town I'd spilled to them the events of the last day inside the now temporarily closed restaurant. Their disappointment at my missing Zack's birthday the previous day soon washed into pity and worry for my and the others' well being.

I hadn't been sure then whether to embrace it or feel bad for so easily brushing off the tenth birthday. Zack said he hadn't minded, but he _was_ a young boy, so I'd figured he was just not diverging what he really felt. And knowing that I knew there would be no point pushing the point, so I hadn't.

Thereafter, I'd inquired just as to what the latest news on the Egg Carrier crash was.

The colour must've drained from my face, because the knowledge that there was a bomb just waiting somewhere in the city waiting to blow it sky high wasn't at all comforting – it'd sent me into fits of shivering even!

But, I'd reminded myself, at least there were no bodies found. That helped a great deal.

Hope was a great soother.

After some deep breathing to recollect the reminder of my thoughts, as per Amber's advice, I'd explained to them my wish to reach the floating Egg Carrier to find out just what had happened to Sonic and everyone.

The pair of them hadn't challenged my decision, but their expressions had been worrisome nevertheless.

But after some brainstorming on ways to reach the vessel, in particular before the news crews and or military did, we had come up with nothing.

Just as I was about to try Tails' communicator, however, Lady Luck came in the form of a knock.

* * *

_FLASHBACK_

_It'd been the second day of my service, a Monday, when Amber had introduced me to Barbara Sanders, one of her regular diners._

_As my eyes had taken him in, the long mane of silvery hair on his mop of a head, just above his shoulders, and his considerable physique [for a man of around seventy], I'd become quite nervous of him, afraid of what he'd think of me, of my kind._

_Barbara had simply said hello and smiled, accepting his ordered helping of steak pie [one of his favourites Amber had said] from me, his chiselled face creasing smoothly as he did so._

_He must've seen my expression of shock, much as I'd tried not to let it show, but he never mentioned it. And so the simple relationship that exists between waiter [or waitress in my case] and consumer had continued, small word of thanks being passed through our lips, but never any more._

_Not until one night where I'd been covering Amber's shift and Mr Sanders had been the last consumer to leave, that is._

_I had just about finished clearing up the used plates and cutlery when he'd called me over, speaking in a rough, yet gentle tone. It's kind of hard to explain. _

_He still had half a cup of coffee left, the skies outside having already been blackened by darkness. It was past ten thirty and closing time, but still, I didn't feel the need to hurry him along._

_Whether that'd been the cause behind the empty cup that met me upon my return to his table I didn't know [then], but that thought had soon slipped my mind when my bubbly curiosity had gotten the better of me. _

"_Mr Barbara… Sir… May I ask you something?" I'd asked tentatively. _

"_Why sure Amy," he'd said calmly as he bought bringing his hands together. "I'm always open for a chat," he finished, eying me with those wise grey eyes as he passed me the empty cup with his right hand._

_The dark blue sleeve of his jacket, laced with course, short white fur, rose up slightly as he did so, revealing to me something that I'd never noticed before this night. And I'd say I was quite good at observing things, if I do say so myself._

_The creamy texture it bared was normal enough, but to someone as close as I'd been just then it was clear that it was just a little too shiny to be real skin. The fingers were rounded and on thin stalks and connected by metallic [I presumed] wiring to the rest of the arm, akin to a puppet's. Other than that the prosthetic arm was pretty inconspicuous._

_Obviously, I'd thoughtfully chimed; otherwise I'd have noticed it by now!_

_It made sense I'd reasoned, putting the cup to one side, as I practised out in my head what I wanted to say, and how I wanted to say it, for Barbara Sanders had been a general in the G.U.N. special ops._

_He had told me [and anyone who'd listen really] that he'd served this duty for thirty years of his life, leading troops into wars that predated the Great War between the Mobian and Overlander species, with the lands between the Kingdom of Acorn and Station Square as their battlegrounds. Barbara's most memorable conflict had been the one in Chun-Nun in 3213-3215, which had been set off by civil rights riots. _

_It'd also been his last._

_I'd collected myself somewhat by then, so I begun again, my voice just above a whisper._

"_Why did you… You…" I'd stuttered, so unlike me [Sonic and the rest could pitch for that]._

"_Why did I accept you for who you are, Miss Rose? Is that what you've wanted to know?" He said smoothly, his grey pools sparkling, as if he'd known all along._

_I hated when men dragged things out like that, rather than simply come out with it, but I couldn't hate Barbara, and so I'd simply nodded with a slight blush on my face._

_He breathed in slowly before then exhaling, readying himself akin to someone diverging their last will and testament [and maybe he had been, looking back on it now], before speaking in that rough, yet gentle tone. _

"_Do you know why I left the army, Miss Rose?"_

_I'd had no idea, nor had I ever thought to ask, so I shook my head._

"_The army I lead was dispatched all over the world, to resolve conflicts between differing opinions and beliefs. Sometimes we'd led a conflict to a chorus of peace, but most of the time we'd command and conquer. Many innocents would be caught in the crossfire. My superiors always acknowledged that the end justifies the means, but I wondered sometimes, was it, was it really?"_

_He paused. And my mind had soaked in the question too; I don't think I'd ever really thought about it before, not even when I was fighting the good fight with the Freedom Fighters. _

_It'd simply never occurred to me of those caught in-between. _

_That's just the way we are I think, you and me, Mobians and Humans." He paused. "Overlanders if you will, not that I care for the old namesake myself… We have a destructive morality of sorts; we like to have control [of varying levels] of other species, not to mention our own. I didn't like that reality that'd become crystal clear to me over all those years."_

_He'd paused again, inhaled and continued anew._

"_I quit not long after the Chun-Nun conflict; the superiors and my soldier brethren had voiced their dismay at the decision, but still I'd left. I had to leave, I'd felt it was the right time. Because… I'd realised, why couldn't we live together and simply have healthy, safe debates of differing opinions? War, in the end, just led to more strife, more death, into infinity…"_

_Barbara had looked up at me, gazing into my eyes. "What a boring world it'd be if we were all of the same opinion, right Miss Rose?"He'd jived jollily. I'd nodded with a smile present on my face, because of course it would be – I don't see why anyone would want such a world. Well, except for maybe Robotnik if he ever won the war, I'd thought gravely._

"_So, in answer of your question, to be blunt," he'd begun with a mild chuckle, his grey eyes drooping slightly."We're all livin' in this world, so why waste all that time fighting each other for something we can't help? Why not just live and experience as much as we possibly can in the lifespan we have?"_

_I nodded, agreeing with him completely, but when his head drooped all the way down, his eyes outside of my gaze, I'd figured that sleep was finally hammering on his head so I'd made a move to carry him somewhere else. Hadn't had a clue on where to at the time, I'd just done it._

_So when he'd swiftly rose up his right hand as a signal to stop, I'd let out a small gasp._

"_I never knew until then, but what I'd been yearning for in my life was simplicity, the freedom to go where I wanted, where I wanted, to experience life for all its joys and pains," he'd sprouted passionately, before fixating his grey eyes on me once more._

_Except now they'd been tinted with a mischievous curiosity. It'd been slightly frightening actually, recalling it now._

"_So what do you want in life, Amy Rose?" he'd said simply. But it hadn't lasted long…_

"_Would ya like respect?" Barbara had said with a knowing smile._

"_Pleasure?" he'd whispered monotonously._

"_Or would you rather be loved, Miss Rose?" Barbara had said warmly._

"_How about adulation?" He'd said simply. My heart had skipped a beat at that one._

_He paused one final time, his smile now a permanent knowing one, and his tone mischievous and curious._

"_Does the simple life of freedom, going where the wind goes, appeal to you?"_

"_Or do you wish to dismiss what life has given you and make the world your own?_

"_Do you perhaps have a secret thrill of seeing fear in the eyes of those weaker than yourself?"_

"_Or do you accept the responsibility to protect those who can't protect themselves?"_

"_Perhaps truth and understanding is what your flesh desires?"Barbara had concluded with a smirk._

_My heart had been racing like a gazelle at that moment, be it from the myriad of possibilities or the creepiness the conversation had flowed into, maybe even Barbara's sudden turn itself. I still don't know to this day what to make of it, or most importantly, which paths I felt were right for me._

_Thankfully, I'd never had to answer, for he'd simply gave me a warm smile and thanked me for lending my ear, before giving a bow and smoothly leaving the restaurant._

_I had stared out into the dark night long after I'd locked up. _

_Thinking of the endless possibilities, but moreso on which were mine?_

_END FLASHBACK_

_

* * *

  
_

The thing I couldn't believe, despite our heart-to-heart back then, was that Barbara Sanders had lent me his speedboat – he loved it!

It was a small yet fancy, sleek white design with a red streak on its underbelly and a small, trailing Chun-Nun flag atop the main housed helm of the boat. A blue fixed sheet acted a small canopy on the backside. The boat also had a note attached by string to the steering wheel which read:

"_Dear Miss Rose,_

_Amber told me of your friends' plight, and so hereby I lend you my boat in order to find them. From what titbits you two angels have told me of this Robotnik character over this short year, all living life is in grave peril, and so know that I believe wholeheartedly in your cause. Also, know that if I was still a young brute then I'd give that Robotnik an asskicking he'd never recover from!_

_Good luck – I wish for your friends' safe return – and farewell,_

_~Barbara~_ "

I gave a small prayer of thanks within my mind, clearing out one of my eyes with my left hand before saying my goodbyes to Amber and Zack.

And Zack being the more technical brainchild of our makeshift family [he and Tails could surely become good friends in time], had quickly run through how to turn the engine on and manoeuvre. It seemed easy enough, I figured.

Amber told me before I left that she'd beaten Barbara's stubbornness by declining to serve him his favourite helpings, though she also thought that he would've lent it anyway and that he was just having some fun. I could see that being the case, boys would be boys, whatever the age. It warmed my heart, whatever the case anyway.

And with that I made course to the floating Egg Carrier, taking it slowly at fast in order to build up my confidence. I was soon going at a decent speed.

I'd arrive at the Egg Carrier in about five minutes I approximated.

As Crystal the Flicky tweeted happily in the fresh air around my head, I couldn't help but let a different plethora of possibilities seep into my head.

_Just what if they were…?_

I couldn't get there fast enough.

* * *

[_GAMMA'S POV_]

*_Play Crazy Robo… BOSS: E-101R_*

The blast ruptured even further the hole where my left arm had originally been, despite its small size. But it was hard enough to do enough damage; damage that I, Gamma, was built to administer and knocked me back onto the upper deck.

My sensors detected movement from behind me, so this time I propelled myself to the side using my jet booster, which in turn lead to me envisioning my brother active for the first time since my awakening.

His reconstruction had done away with his bottom half, leaving only the top half which was fitted with, from my scanners could pickup, that he had advanced homing missiles [thankfully only one, unlike Zeta], twin laser cannon arms and large spiked gauntlets, no doubt for bludgeoning his opponent with. Any other techniques Beta had were unreadable to me.

_His airborne fighter designation may make this problematic…_ I thought.

I wasn't worried, though.

Beta came swooping down at me once more, trails of yellow-white light passing over my robotic body from a single green eye in the centre of its reconstructed head. I calculated it to be an advanced scanner mechanism with a high degree of probability – but I wasn't fast enough to avoid it. My digital matrix, abilities and ammunition amounts were transmitted back to him in a matter of nanoseconds [via my loose, exposed wirings no less], it didn't seem to do anything else. I'd thought it may've been some sort of viral weapon.

Still, I didn't know what Beta was capable of yet, so I jetted backwards.

As I'd expected my renegade brother charged at me once more, but this time a shimmer of various colours, not unlike that of the phenomenon flesh creatures called a 'rainbow', covered Beta in a spherical shell. It was likely a defensive mechanism, but the increased heat signature my scanners picked up told me that I'd do colossal damage if I got caught up in it.

To do so I did the one thing I haven't done before in battle – I fell backwards, allowing Beta to glide over me and my systems to remain intact for a while longer.

As I used my whirring copter blades to get myself standing again, however, I was far from _fed up_ of being the target – I was the one with the mission here, and I was going to complete it.

Even if I had to take Beta and me down together…

So, as my older brother was momentarily recovering from his aerial assaults, I charged at the black and white automation, darting left and right as I fired my blaster for a head shot.

With a simple swing of its arms, my shots were batted away with ease, the rebutted lasers lighting up the surrounding waters.

I was now re-analysing the threat level Beta possessed.

* * *

Our game of 'cat and mouse', another term that'd been randomly added to my stored vocabulary in the last few hours, continued on for a few more minutes, as we dived, ducked, rolled and fired at each other, never making much headway in defeating the other.

I think Beta realised this as much as I had, so he stopped, hovering above the opposite end of our makeshift 'arena', just seconds after I'd halted my offensive.

I hadn't needed to utilize it, being superior to the other life forms [and robot models] I'd encountered up to this point, but my upgraded older brother needed to be taken down – and I couldn't do that with mere laser blasts.

It was time to unleash my full potential.

My sole blaster arm began to slowly rotate in a circular motion as I pumped additional energies into it, which not only increased my offensive prowess, but hid just what I was slotting into place from Beta.

Unfortunately, inevitably, it triggered a warning.

"_Jet Booster at 67% efficiency... Power at 45% efficiency..." _

I ignored it, acknowledging that if I took care of Beta now, then it wouldn't matter if my power ran out. I'd go down with the Egg Carrier into the ocean if need be…

My remaining arm then promptly stopped spinning, now filled with a new weapon, smart missiles. If I could smile with delight, I would've, the destructive power within them could level buildings with ease [according to my databanks, at least].

This fight may actually turn out to be _fun_, I thought, cocking my missile launcher just the once, with a thud, before firing at my brotherly opponent.

For reasons I knew not [at that moment], Beta just remained standing where he was, not talking [just like my other fallen brethren]. Even when my twined missiles hit and penetrated his shield, self-terminating like a volcano against his chest, he still stood there, unfazed.

I soon found out just why.

My older brother clapped his arms together, a hoard of homing missiles spewing from his back and rained down around me. Acknowledge that I, Gamma, had blasted down five out of the nine targets beforehand, and you'll know why the fire storm around me lacked a fatal blow.

Beta had an equal amount of offensive and defensive capabilities, as well as range, but I could fly too. And so with another spin of my copter blades, I took our game to the next level.

I dived in at my older brother, hoping to administer a fatal blow from behind, but he had simply hazed out and disappeared.

_Perhaps I'd underestimated his speed in comparison to my own_, my whirring computer brain decided, still calculating a strategic way to take Beta out. No matter what it cost.

A brute force smashed into my back, shattering two or three of my copter blades and sending me down from the ravaged glass dome that had been our arena and onto the split landing strip at the Egg Carriers' back.

Raining lines of symbols and code flashed across my glassy eyes, a type of digital concession, I reasoned, as I struggled to my feet. I was [again] thankful that Zeta hadn't blown off a leg before.

When my vision of the world reappeared, it was then I noticed the dimmed light, the effect of which caused my green eyes to increase their range. It was though a black hole was sucking in all the surrounding abundant light. Being just before the thirteenth hour, this made no sense at all, excluding the event deemed a 'solar eclipse' [but one wasn't down for today].

And so I looked up at where the sun had been, only to see that a great shadow hovered over me. Beta had a sphere of energy cupped in his hands, which served only to darken our surroundings somehow [_perhaps it was just his shadow?_ I thought].

Without word or warning he shot it in my direction, the ball of energy moving neither erratically or homing onto me. It was a rogue shot.

I had less than two seconds to avoid or face it before the black and white air strips disappeared in a sun-coloured explosion.

* * *

"_Inner systems breach! Internal temperatures are… at… 200°c and… rising!_"

I'd never felt extreme heat up till now. Not really. Igniting that first stream of fire in the Mystic Ruins Jungle however many days ago [I couldn't focus enough to retrieve such data from my memory banks] was as subtle as the cool wind in comparison. It was nothing like this.

I'd fallen onto my front and rolled myself inward [as much as I could, I was a robot, not a hedgehog or armadillo] when the epicentre of light had surged over me, primarily to protect my exposed, open chest. Despite this, the flames still punched away at my metallic shell, hoping to pierce its Superior Megatal hide. It didn't. But it still hurt, I, Gamma, was actually in _pain_.

A circular facet of colours spun and dazzled my digital mind; to me it looked like glass. And glass was fragile. Eventually, even Megatal [of both kinds] would begin to soften, and then my inner circuitry would spark and drown in the stuff. I'd become a metallic pot of molten Megatal before I could scream my last vocal output.

I couldn't let that happen, so I cocked my lone gun arm and looked up into the heart of the blast above me. My scanners indicated that it was the coolest region of it right now, so calculating that it'd at least cut an escape route for me [whilst the oxygenated air remained], I fired not one, but three of my Smart Missiles at it as I diverted energy into my cooling systems.

The thud [and roaring explosions] came in three, the first slightly muted as it ignited against Beta's simmering rainbow shield, the automation having charged through said spot before I could detect him.

He must have assessed that I'd be damaged or distracted enough for a pre-emptive attack.

_I was glad to prove you wrong, brother Beta_, I thought with what flesh creatures might interpret as

The last two missiles of mine had caused some damage, tearing off some chest plates and a layer of Beta's face. Now there was more grey [amidst a cross pattern of liquid energy] than white, and more black than white. To some flesh creatures it might have looked scary, but to me, a robot, it was simply our exoskeleton. And it was fragile as fleshy skin in the right hands, and today those were mine as I grabbed my older brother in a headlock.

Then with a burst of propulsion I propelled us both dead forward, the burning heat left behind. He struggled, Beta did, but the unexpected attack left him flailing in my arms.

Seconds later we crashed, with flashing greens and blues in my reawakened vision. I'd just calculated that Beta and I had shattered the outer rim of the glass dome, the very one that housed most of the machinery that made flying the vessel possible in the first place, when I realised that my arms felt light. _Too light_. Beta must have prised himself free via help of the impact.

It was then a smack to my cranium brought my older brother's whereabouts to light. He was to my right, and now to my left. He was hazing in and out of my vision again as glass shards showered around us, stabbing into our hides like the bites of mere ants.

Not used to physical force over weaponry, my first two or three punches were weak and random, but eventually I got a smash in on his chest.

Though I got knocked back a feet or two from his shield – I had to get rid of it if I stood any chance of victory.

As us remaining brothers emerged in the heart of the glass dome, still sparsely smoky [and in addition, rubble and water infested] from the crash, I got a glimpse at just what might help me to achieve my duty after all.

Beta, although safely shielded from my futile attempts at physical fighting, had spun around, just slightly, allowing me to see his back side fully for the first time.

_I should punish myself for not acknowledging this thought earlier_, I thought to myself as I landed cleanly on a sheet of metal, knocked inwards by the crash, I calculated.

To analysis, unlike me and my other brethren, Beta had two pipes protruding from his back, which then coiled back in further down, which meant they likely acted as valves to keep his power energies in check. If I could remove them both, then Beta should be unable to control his energy supply… and then he'd be on my level [or just below] once more.

Time was ending, for both of us, as the thirteenth hour struck.

* * *

With my jet boosters I swooped down on my brother and slammed an uppercut with my mounted gun arm into the automation's chest. A barrage of three of four missiles sizzled into my back for my efforts, rupturing a hole not unlike the one in my front. My mind wandered briefly, wondering if they'd met in the middle yet… as I was knocked away, again, by the simmering shield.

"_Jet Booster at 55% efficiency... Power at 38% efficiency..."_ droned my inner computing system.

I ignored it, firing off another burst of missiles at Beta, aiming to get him off guard one more time [even if I had to bring down a whole wall down on him to do it].

Next I'd propelled myself airborne with my jet thrusters to avoid a retaliation array of missiles from my aggressor. And in the process we caused a fair bit of damage to the surrounding area, torn holes in the walls now let in rays of sunlight, which in turn reflected off the slow, yet rising waters below. A mirage of reflections coated the walls around us, as the creaking whines began.

The structure would cave in on us soon, sealing us in this watery tomb.

Beta either had acknowledged that, intending for I to be the one sealed [or simply destroyed] down here, or his wild protocols overran whatever intelligence he had left, as he remained still, and with his back to me, just one and half feet away.

This was my chance – and I took it.

My brother wasn't one for giving up so easily, however, as Beta twirled around just in the nick of time [for himself], backhanding my missiles primed for his twin coils. A giant hole now lay in the northern wall of the glass dome.

In fact, I was highly sure that his eyes narrowed _and_ brightened at the attempt. It made sense, I acknowledged, he was only a hollow soldier now, Beta didn't have the 'soul' that I, Gamma, seemed to possess [and neither had my other brethren]. It was only me…

Metal clashed against metal, Beta and I tossing and twirling in the air for some time, the abundance of sunlight causing the reflected rays to dizzy my vision from time to time, but finally I overcame him with a well-timed punch, straight through the top end of the hole.

A screech of metal revealed the inner cranium of Beta's head, the shield even having submitted to the jagged, sharp edges of the metallic implosion. Now we both, one older brother, and one younger, had exposed, sparking wiring hanging loose...

_Is this what it had to come too?_ I thought absentmindedly [the flesh creatures called it], as I stared on at the erratically shaky form, now just a touch more grey than before.

_Could this be what it means to care for someone…?_ I added, just to myself.

Maybe, maybe not, Beta _was_ my older brother… but that didn't mean he knew any better.

I'd have to destroy him, and then myself, before my duty was complete.

So swiftly flying over to the top deck, where the grayish automation had collapsed on, I gladly put the joints in my hands to good use.

With a snap and hiss, I ripped off the upper coil from Beta's back.

* * *

Pink and white energy snaked out, as though it longed for freedom, spraying all over the deck of the Egg Carrier, as well as Beta and I. It did nothing but steam off my armoured shell, though it did spark when it came into contact with my exposed wirings, so I quickly moved aside. As I waited for it to stop gushing out, I acknowledged the lack of oil spilling out alongside it, which actually hadn't surprised me. Like with all the other E-Series units [and most likely myself as well], we powered biologically by captive Flickies, in a similar vein to the inferior Badnik models were run.

The power source we shared allowed the assimilation of living beings, using them as biological batteries for upwards of two to three years, if we weren't severely damaged. An artificial brain food keeps the internal subjects' brain going, providing an ample energy source for us. And because only the brain is being fed, the captive's body becomes malnourished – and thus, whether we are destroyed or not, a biologically run automation's lifespan is finite.

Beta and I were no different.

As I approached my older brother, who'd by now stopped shaking and was only still, and ever silent, a brief wave of thought overcame me. It regarded the definition of brothers.

Now I was within arm's reach of his remaining energy coil.

Brothers, real blood brothers that is, either shared their possessions or they didn't, and I didn't feel like sharing the pain [or submitting] to Beta!

"_Jet Booster at 47% efficiency... Power at 32% efficiency..."_ my inner systems hummed again. It was too bad I couldn't filter out _those_, I thought irritably.

Next I felt a clawing sensation across my chest, knocking me back into one of the remaining wall supports, which was a crimson red.

A flash of white static eclipsed my vision for just a second.

I realised in a mild panic, as Beta charged at me, that I only had ten missiles left, and a surplus supply of them would no doubt be twenty feet underwater at this moment …

Still, they should be enough to damage him now, for my scanners had noted that shield was no more. And so I rained three down on him, causing a loud, crunch-like sound as they disintegrated through his chest and right arm, leaving Beta with one arm and a matching mole like I, his younger brother.

A surge of electricity rocketed out of the empty arm socket, more a sign of obvious malfunctions in his now failing system than a controlled assault at me.

"_Jet Booster at 40% efficiency... Power at 28% efficiency..."_ my inner systems roared. And now I could feel everything beginning to cease, maybe the biological battery in my head was already dead. Regardless, I knew this chain reaction couldn't be stopped.

I only had minutes left to exist, in the only way I knew how, and I was determined to go down fighting [if not with my duty completed].

And so we both took to the air for one final time, two explosive aerial forces primed for destruction.

We ducked and jetted around, dodging the others blows [and I hadn't yet thought it was opportune to unleash another of my seven remaining smart missiles].

In the end it wouldn't matter, however, as Beta, whom I now regrettably accessed still had enough power to pull off an advanced technique or two, appeared behind me and strangled me in a mighty headlock. I struggled to break free, as my energy reserves continued to deplete with every passing minute due to the intensive damage I'd taken.

All I knew for sure was that I was trapped.

* * *

My computing brain fired like a machine gun through various emergency procedures, something that had been independent from Robotnik's installed program, as I ceased my struggles in my older brother's arms. His clawed gauntlets just tipped the surface of my gun [now missile] arm, as the outer walls of my head began to creak, his frenzied, energized strength beginning to overwhelm my very molecular structured bonds.

A logical [and in my intellectually high 'opinion', effective] emergency procedure, flashed and scrolled across my glassy vision, just as Beta's grip lessened on my head and neck, and viciously clutched onto the tip of my remaining arm, my only weapon.

I'd heard the term 'howling in pain' before, but I'd never experienced it till then, but I didn't _howl_ out, I wouldn't give _him_ the gratification. And besides, Beta couldn't read my mind, but if my brother could have, then _he_ would've felt a sizeable twinge of a smile that had imprinted itself my digital 'soul'.

One claw suddenly pierced through my metallic flesh, and then another, and another, until soon my whole arm was literally in my brother's hand. Just one swift movement and he could rip it off.

I knew I had to move first, so I quickly diverted all remaining power into my remaining arm. My legs collapsed, breaking in half due to the fact, forcing me on my knees. It didn't bother me at all. I no longer had any need of them.

Next my glassy vision slowly began to dissipate into smaller circles, as colour began to be overpowered by blackness. The pulsating flow of power was right under Beta's clawed grip now, just a few inches more and he'd break the circuit, and I'd be finished.

Looking away from the Egg Carrier, still in Beta's steeled grasp, I took in my last glimpse of the visual world before colour became static, and then darkness. In what would be my last visual memory, I could've sworn that across the calm, oceanic mass a small, white vessel was speeding along in our direction, but I dismissed it as just a streak of sun glare.

Being an intellectual [and acknowledged, sentient] robot, I didn't believe in the man-created definition of luck, for I worked in mathematical probabilities, facts, terms and logic, but as my pool of internal energy suddenly emitted an orangey-white glow, I could nothing but silently thank whatever external forces [if any] had drawn Beta off for that extra second.

"_Beta_," I spoke slowly, perhaps even softly. "_Now we are both free!_"

And then I ignited those seven remaining missiles with all the energy I had left to give, enveloping me and Beta in its primal cocoon both before we could even scream.

Time now had no meaning, so I had no idea how long the darkness lasted for [though it seemed to be endless]. And it seemed that only I was present in this space – I could no longer detect Beta, for I had no devices with which to locate him with, nor a physical shell. I was just here – wherever _here_ was…

Then, like a streak of falling stars, a great, stretching umbra of white light engulfed me. It did not burn me, nor soothed. It just was. But it did beckon me towards it, and so I flew towards it [though I could not compute… comprehend… acknowledge… just as to how, at that very second], soon vanishing from that space.

Then all was good. Truly good.

I was free, and far away from the disasters to come.

* * *

[_AMY'S POV_]

One moment I'd been brushing back a strand of hair that had been swaying in front of my eyes for the last thirty seconds or so, and the next a spell of sunlight flashed up in the distance.

The Egg Carrier was speedily coming up, looking more together than I would've imagined [I put that down to its weight and shape, something Rotor would surely have a hypothesis about]. Though, looking at how much of the vessel was encased in water [I estimated two thirds], I worriedly wondered where I'd even begin to start looking for Crystal's family…

Some loud tweeting just above my head caused me on reflex to instantly look up. My pink feathered friend was flapping erratically; her light red eyes open wide, staring past me.

Two figures loomed in the distance, darting back and forth in the air above the floating vessel. They looked like bugs with their rounded bodies and thin limbs. Also oddly familiar, but I couldn't put a finger on just from where.

I subtly increased the boat's speed, allowing time for a small smile of reassurance to Crystal, who now was resting on my right shoulder.

"Don't worry, we'll find your family soon. I promise."

And being a bird, who couldn't speak [or smile like we do], all Crystal gave was a cheerful tweet. It was enough for me, though.

But as the gap between us and them drew to a close, the calm waves beginning to churn like mixed butter, glimpses of black, white and red, sprinkled with orangey pinks, got caught in my determined, green pools.

An idea, a growing certainty, began to dawn in my head.

But it turned out to be for nought, for when the metallic behemoth finally tapped the tip of my boat; the two robots fell to the ground like shooting stars.

"Mr Robot! … Gamma!" I cried, using his designated name for the first time, hoping for a response, of any kind that told me that he remembered me, and that he was okay. A second's breath passed, and I got none. The pair had landed on the deck above me, from whence I couldn't see them.

So as I cleared the watery gap between boat and airship with ease, with Crystal right behind me, I swiftly scanned my surroundings. A constructed slope of rubble met my left side, so with careful care, I traversed the fractured, slowly sinking terrain.

I'd just got into an active 'beat' when I turned the corner, my hand leaving fleeting touches to a red pillar, now littered with holes. It was warm to the touch. And it was then my hand went to my mouth, as I saw the state Gamma, and another similar robot [_perhaps a robot rival?_ I thought] were in. They were literally in pieces, and the other unknown robot had a tight headlock on Gamma. 'He', as I dubbed him as, looked helpless.

I needed to help him!

But my advance was cut short as a ball of white light took form over Gamma's one remaining arm, which I noted now looked slightly bulkier than it had before, before hastily covering them both.

A hoarse scream escaped from my lips as I was blown backwards, further down the deck, as simple, blind confusion filled my mind.

My eyes instinctively had welded themselves shut, but I could still see and feel the concoction, the sheer intensity of the explosion, its energy [thankfully] only gentling blowing across my head and back. I'd also scrunched myself into a ball, Crystal tweeting with fear as I cradled her to my chest, next to my racing heart.

The encounter had lasted no more than five seconds, and the explosion even less than that, but it felt like minutes had passed when I finally crawled myself to a cross-legged sitting position and I let sweet, precious air flew back into my lungs once more. I was a barrel of emotions, but I was glad to be alive and without mortal injury.

When my eyes rose and met the spot the robots had just been, however, there was only a charred, lonely spot.

Then I screamed out, my voice carrying out on the wind.

"Mr Robot… No!"

I fell to my knees. Gamma and I had barely known one another, true, but he had saved me of his own accord. I just felt _bad_ for him going out this way.

_I never got to really say thank you…_ I began thinking glumly, when a swish of movement broke the trance.

Looking above I saw not only Crystal, but two other Flickies with here, whom were pink and Orange respectively.

"Two robots, two Flickies… So we found Crystal's family after all!" I marveled. "Thank goodness," precluded a sigh of relief, for I hadn't entirely sure whether Crystal's family would've died in the crash.

_The crash…_ brought me back to why I'd also come here. _Sonic… Guys… Where are you?_

Just then a crackling hum sounded from around me, around us, and then a grid of red and yellow lines, in a triangular-like shape, formed over Crystal. A big hand, akin to a boxing glove, then smacked against her side, causing her to fall!

"Crystal! Oh no!"

As me and her blood relatives rushed to her side, a terrific thud that rolled across the day like a boulder sounded from behind.

Twisting round, I was almost spooked off my feet, as the attacker was none other than 'Bolt-Brain', my own personal 'stalker', that big, dark green, blocky robot, with the clear golden hexagonal head ornament and dark pink eyes.

Bolt-Brain simply gave a garbled, robotic snarl before charging at me with glowering eyes.

* * *

I froze, rooted to the spot, as flashes of memories emerged not only through my unsteady heartbeat, but through my shivering skin.

Smooth, shiny and deathly cold hands… I'd been caught between them twice now, I thought with boiling frustration. First by a too smooth, too slow robot replica and yesterday by this robot with a stalker problem – just what was it with me and getting captured by these bozos?!

My shivering skin was beginning to grow into patches of emotional fluster, not only due to my rising anger at my own failures [and now Crystal's injuries], but due to the balancing scale that furiosity was sharing with another emotion; pure simple fear.

This was no simple Swatbot or Badnik, after all, and in this big battle ahead I had no backup. Tails would have no idea where I'd gone till it was too late – if I didn't make it through.

_He_ was less than two feet away now.

_Could I actually prevail all by myself?_ I wondered, lightly treading between cool and hot-headedness.

And then I thought no more, as those same hands smacked me out of the way, thankfully only with the backhand to my chest, else I could've broken something.

I landed in a tumbled heap on the other side like one of my old dolls, the wind briefly knocked out of me, but the robot didn't pursue me. All he did was look at me with those hollow, bright eyes, as he hovered aimlessly. It was almost as though he was egging me on…

My reservoir of cool bubbled over then before I stop it.

"That does it…" I growled; my eyes narrowing as I felt round to my back. Thankfully it was still there. "First you capture me and wound Crystal, but now you _dare_ try to get between me finding my friends - well I won't have it!"

I charged at the metal monster, my face surely looking like a fiery medusa, with my trusty hammer, and aimed for those egg-shaped protruding eyes.

I wasn't prepared for the rocketing hand that sprung out from Bolt-Brain's left arm, like a spring, connecting with my left cheek.

I fell backwards, not unlike a reversed replay of what had lead me into being snatched by Bolt-Brain right before the fight with Chaos 4, my hammer landing flat on its nether side.

Then in a whoosh I was up in the air like Elise at the start of the _Wizard of Moebius_.

I screamed out mild curses I weren't even aware of as my heart slammed into my throat and the world became a merry-go-round of red, blue and green vertigo as I back flipped.

_God, I think I'm gonna be sick…_ I thought worriedly, knowing that amongst the possible health concern, I also knew that projectile vomit wasn't going to be of any help in this fight – not against a hovering robot.

With an 'Oomph!' I just about landed on two legs away from the robot, though my knees throbbed with pain. I quickly massaged them, as well as the surrounding leg muscles, as I scanned over my trusty, yellow-gold Piko-Piko Hammer. It was a weapon I'd had with me for a long time, but I'd only known it to have mid attack range and ample offensive power – that was all [I thought] I needed to know about it.

_Seems like that time before wasn't just a fluke…_ I thought, the memory briefly washing over my pools.

_FLASHBACK_

_As one [of the many] the watery, serpentine arms of Chaos 6 was slashed aside by Antoine, I swiped with my hammer at another that had been leering over me, ready to pounce._

_Except I'd missed, and went cascading into the air, only having time to have a _very_ brief 'heart in my throat' like moment before I'd landed [surprisingly] like a cat on my feet, with only a mild stinging in them being of consequence. _

_From the way everyone's mouths were agape, they were as shocked as I was!_

_A 'springy' hammer eh, I thought, this could be quite useful if used right… _

_END FLASHBACK_

I regained conscious awareness just in time to see Bolt-Brain charging at me once more, but now with a solid black baton in his right hand which crackled with blue electricity.

I wasn't about to be hit by that again! I thought determinedly, so instinctively decided to utilize my hammers unique ability by slamming down the crimson ground as hard as I could.

The vertigo was less so this third time around [thankfully], which bestowed briefer loss of clarity in my eyes. I was now behind him, his back flack wide open as he swivelled his muddled CPU head back and forth looking for whence I'd gone.

For a robot stalker who'd captured me, he was quite dumb, which was nothing short of _embarrassing_ now that I thought about it. Still, I am rusty at all this I supposed, as I took aim at the back of his cranium, leapt and brazenly bought my hammer down, hoping to rapture [or at least crack] it in.

And missed again, instead flailing right over his head.

_Yep, definitely rusty. Just a bit… _

Instead this time I wasn't met with large, hollow pink eyes upon landing which meant –!

Those large cold hands were on me like rats to fresh meat, his untimely patience serving to deliver me to him, _again_. Before I could worm my way out though, a surge of crackling energy seeped into my left arm. And it took all the willpower I had to not scream to the heavens as the electricity erupted under my skin, feeling as though a million needles were bursting through it – but I wouldn't [though admittedly I did whimper a little], this trashcan simply didn't deserve it I thought, for my flared anger was finally beginning to shift into something more potent and pure: a cool and sharpened mind.

Bolt-Brain was going to be the first to learn not to underestimate me ever again.

* * *

_FLASHBACK_

_It was a moderately cool summer's day, and we were in a grassy meadow just outside the city._

_Four distinct shrilling sounds pierced through the abundant air around us, on my call. _

"_No, no, no, that simply isn't how it's done, Miss Rose," my mentor said in dismay, shaking his short, brown hair-covered head as he inspected my handiwork (which even I could see wasn't _perfect)_._

_The four short, stumped cross bolts were laid out in an erratic pattern (if one could call it that) across a typical plain circular target. My mentor, Ash, had advised I started off with the 5cm yellow with black tips cross bolts, since I was still a beginner. _

_Even with the 'trainer scope' (as I dubbed it) atop my assigned beginner crossbow, my delivery had yielded only a 3, 2, 1 and a miss – nowhere near the bulls eye. _

_And this was the third session in these two starting weeks. _

_I sighed inwardly. _

_I'm no good at this at all… I thought, letting my shoulders slump, the chocolate-brown wooden crossbow limp at my side. _

_Ash had noticed this however, and so after another attempt (with so-so improvement), he reassured me, saying that I at least had a spark of potential – not like a fair few who signed up to his activity group, who just wanted to stroke their own egos out of whatever jolly mischief they could reckon with such experience. And since bows and crossbows weren't as 'cool' or 'tough' looking as the usual physical weapon, it was a mainly female dominated field as well._

_We took a break, seeing as it was now almost two and we hadn't cut for lunch yet (probably my fault I admitted, as when I get involved with something I liked to pursue it to the end!). I had my morning-made coronation chicken sandwiches, a fair few gulps of bottled peachy-water and a green apple, whilst Ash settled for a seafood-infested baguette and a bottle of spring water. Not exactly two things high on my 'like' list personally, except maybe Scampi._

_Anyway, it was around the time I was crunching into the fruit's juicy innards that Ash broke our comfortable silence with a slight bemused smile on his face._

"_You know, you never _did_ tell me the reasoning's behind taking my sessions, Amy" he confronted with enquiring brown eyes._

_Oh that's right, I _had_ dodged the question back then. Mainly because I wasn't sure what he or the others would think, but I was at ease with him enough to at least let him in a little._

_It'd been four months since I'd first arrived in Station Square – so having a friend from outside the restaurant would do me good (I'm sure my mother would say, if she were still around). _

"_I came here because…" I hesitated for just a second, before allowing my heart to open just a little more. Ash's eyes betrayed no sign of impatience, he simply waited for me to finish. He knew that I would now._

"_I came here because I want to become stronger."_

_END FLASHBACK_

_

* * *

  
_

I awoke with a slur in my tone, the world slithering around me in a confusing spiral. And my head and left arm ached.

Even so, the valuable words that Ash had let me privy to following my brief breakdown of the plight of South Island, and in turn the whole world at Robotnik's touch (excluding the events that had led me here in the first place) echoed now in my head:

"_Do not think of the weapon as merely a tool to wield in your hand, but an extension of your arm itself – focus on that now Amy Rose!_"

It was too bad I hadn't taken my crossbow with me today instead, I irritatedly thought to myself, before realising that had that of been the case I wouldn't have found out about my hammers unique abilities.

_Something unexpectedly good can come out of even the worst situations_ – a fortune cookie of mine had teased me one time on a Chinese takeaway the Worthington's and I had shared one time. I figured now was a good a time as any for it to apply, but still, it wasn't like I didn't have other things up my sleeves… I thought mischievously.

Bolt-Brain hadn't seemed to notice that the victim in his grasp was now awake and plotting, so slipping out a flash of three tarots from my top proved not to be a problem in those next few seconds. The tickling sensation running somewhere under my skin again lit up my cards in a delightful light pinky-purple light and before my captor could stop me, I drove all three of them down its restraining arm, cutting through its metallic structure at the thinnest point with the ease of hot butter.

This surprise attack [that not even I knew for sure would work] not only freed me from his cold clutches, but preceded a loud 'CLANG!' sound from the deck, as the electrical baton suffered a case of butterfingers from Bolt-Brain's half-hanging left metallic appendage.

Not one to let such a sweet opportunity go by, I made use of his bewildered state and slammed my hammer into its head, knocking it back, as well making a satisfying smashing sound. Something must've weakened inside, I thought with a smirk. It seemed that with a cool and sharpened mind [thanks Ash] that my aim and strength had become more polished already.

But with the turning tide, this one chance to prove my strengths not only to myself, but to everyone else, came a new, rougher fist-throwing offensive by Bolt-Brain, preceded by a robotic snarl.

I instinctively ducked and rolled as his two fists lashed out at me – the ant with more bite than his computing brain had calculated – stopping myself just a few feet short of the edge that overlooked the ocean below – the same ocean that would slowly but surely devour this metallic vessel whole.

Looking around I could tell that despite my raised spirits, the downed Egg Carrier didn't provide much of an arena, which could make this more of a game of hide and seek [if I so wished]. My eyes had even flickered upon a small splintered crevice just down on the left side of our battle platform; I could whack the boxed robot and take cover under there, pull a surprise attack, it would be easy enough to pull off.

_But I'm not going to that_, I thought serenely, taking controlled breaths inwards and outwards... all the while keeping an eye on Bolt-Brain [who by now had retrieved his electrical pain-inducing pleasure baton and was approaching me once more]. I wasn't going to run away. _I'd done too much of that recently in my life. I would do so no more!_

He slammed both of his fists through the surrounding air in the form of an uppercut, the electric baton whirring excitedly in his right grasp, aiming for my head – a flesh creature's second vital spot [after the heart].

I simply blocked the assault with my hammer, and wasn't even winded or pushed back much neither. I smirked, wondering just what programmed intellect Bolt-Brain had closest to annoyance and whether it was lit up in full right now, by me, a renowned _ant lion_, before I roared out in defiance, a mixture of anger and excitement:

"You swing your fists around like a wuss!"

His pink eyes flickered off for one second and then he charged, as did I, our tools of destruction primed for victory.

It was _so_ on now.

* * *

I can't estimate with great precision how long our deadly dance of blows and evasions went on for, but by now I could definitely feel the afternoon sun's glare on the back of my neck now, even more so than I had around noon.

_Of course, the added fact I've been in a physical battle for at least a quarter of an hour would naturally make me more vulnerable to such_, I reasoned, as the almost familiar bang of my hammer meeting metal cascaded me into the air, avoiding Bolt-Brain's thrusting retaliation in the form of that electrical baton. I even hit him in the cranium as I cart wheeled on the way.

_I'm getting good at this_, I thought with a small smile – _but I really don't like the look of that baton of his_, I continued after realising the pause in the action.

The obsidian baton was no longer just crackling with electrical energies, it was radiating with an arc of bluish-green tinted sparks, which morphed into a sparking sphere. Then before I could blink, my robot opponent had flicked it my way with his giant index finger.

I side rolled just in the nick of time, feeling the vibrations course through the warm air as it mildly scorched a metal floor panel off to the side of me. I gulped instinctively, knowing that it'd of done far more than that to me...

_Come on hon_, I heard a familiar bunnie say soothingly somewhere in my mind's recesses, _don't let it get you down. You're better than that._

She was right, and whether Bunnie and the rest were alive or dead, I _would_ win this battle for myself and –

A humming siren-like sound cannoned into my left side, followed by a slicing flare of heat. I then felt something warm and sticky slowly seeping down my left knee area. I kept my gaze on Bolt-Brain as I knelt down, letting my right hand rub the bloodied wound in that pointless 'kiss it better' like motion your parents [or and partner] would do when you got hurt.

The pain was scathing in its newly fresh state, but not fatal. Nothing worth crying over – it's not as though I'd lost the limb and hindered my movement.

_I guess that'll teach me not to think too hard mid-battle next time_, I joked inwardly – though it wouldn't be funny if it got infected later on I knew.

More spheres came darting my way, almost as though the robot was getting impatient [if he'd had an ounce of Gamma in it, perhaps he was], but I was prepared this time, and so instead of charging straight at him or flipping over him again, I opted for simply standing my ground, literally.

I didn't need to close my eyes to hear just which direction these surging spheres were being thrown from – they were quite noisy with their droning tempo [though even so, I didn't close my eyes – I wasn't a _ninja_ for pete's sakes]! So with a [more] polished swing in my step, I sent the two electric balls packing into accumulating rubble around us both. And I just got to the third, with a belly flop-like lunge on my part, too.

That last one, by a stroke of luck, ricotched back into Bolt-Brains' chest, rendering him immobile temporarily [if the short-circuiting sparks and shuddering motions were of any indication].

I didn't want to get raw toasty fingers, and of course I was overly cautious to the still form of my robot assailant, so I opted for my Piko Piko hammer, which sent the baton cascading into the ocean with a weak, dying sizzle.

Mr Green growled very loudly as its new toy was lost to the deep murky depths, and then went all primal and stabbed forward with both palms outward, aiming for my neck.

"Oh no, you're not capturing me for a _third_ time –" I taunted breathily as I 'hammer-flipped' over this bull-charging excuse of a machine, who was both steaming out deathly fumes and sparking at this point. "– because you're finished!"

His small, dark pink didn't even react as my hammer and I dived into him face first with an audible 'crunch!', it was so pronounced [and loud], that I was surprised that my manoeuvre hadn't decapitated the boxed-shaped robot in the process.

_Well, it's not like I have an athlete's build [or stamina]_, I inwardly shrugged as I back-stepped away. _I'm just me_.

Bolt-Brain dropped to the floor with a loud resonating clank before its upper body exploded in fiery light head first, causing me to cover my eyes with my right arm.

I only hoped that there hadn't been another animal held captive inside.

* * *

A minute or so passed and the half-bodied crater of a robot didn't rise from the 'dead' and start chasing me again, signalling the end of this journey of mine. There also wasn't any obvious chargrilled fleshy smells fragrancing the former battle arena, so I had nothing dead on my conscience either.

I breathed out a sigh of relief just as a calming wind lightly wrestled through the strands of my hair. It was relaxing... and I somewhat wondered whether there was any grains of truth to that old battle tale that a refreshing breeze trailed over the victors in acknowledgement.

_It's probably just mere superstition_, I thought objectively, _just a way of the victorious scratching their egos. Still, it would be nice to believe..._

A whiff of the salty fresh sea air was all I caught as I twirled myself around, remembering just why I'd come to this doomed vessel in the first place.

"Crystal, are you –" I began boldly.

Only to be greeted by an empty spot where three Flickies had once come to rest.

"– okay?"

Time seemingly ground to a halt around me as I inhaled slowly, nervously, the world I envisioned looking as though I had blurry glasses on as I arced my head from side to side and wandered aimlessly, hoping for any clue as to what had become of the avian trio.

I could see no such obvious clue.

_Did Bolt-Brain knock them off during the fight?_ I can't remember seeing them. _Or did I...?_

_No, no_, I croaked heartfully to myself, collapsing to my knees. _I couldn't have done. I'm _not_ a killer. Please... Oh no... _

*_Tweet tweet! Tweet!_*

This chorus, a symphony made up of two pieces, resonated from above me, prompting me to look up at the cloudless cerulean skies, which were partly blurring off to the side for some reason.

"You guys are all right!" I exclaimed happily, all three of them were perfectly fine. _They must've taken off for cover once the fighting started_, I deduced, wiping my right eye of its dew-like moisture.

"But where's Crystal?" I voiced quietly.

The pair and then I looked over the edge of the Egg Carrier's eastern side, waiting patiently. My clenched fists were shaking in anticipation. We'd all come so far, to lose her now would be devastating...

A blur, not quite as fast as a shooting star, then soared slowly upward and then turned to gaze at me down below.

*Tweet tweet* Crystal chirped, still managing to flap nearly in turn with its brethren, despite its visibly aching left wing, as they descended.

Two journeys now completed, we enveloped one another in a tight hug as I shouted her name jubilantly to the heavens. And then we soon parted, and all I could do was wave.

Crystal and I each had our own paths to follow, and home[s] to go to, people to see...

And as the reunited family, of light sea blue, rosy mid pink and lime green circled overhead, I welled up with an assortment of emotions; the relief that I felt upon coming through my battle relatively unscathed, the heartfelt wishes I inwardly passed onto Crystal and her family as they left the Egg Carrier forever, the ecstatic boost of confidence this journey [particularly this curtain-closing battle] I'd learnt I had, as well as the new found respect I now had for my trusty hammer [and crossbow, next I saw it].

I also [more than ever] wanted to see everyone, Sonic... Sally... Bunnie... Tails... Rotor... _Everyone._ If the ship was still mostly intact, then why couldn't they have come through unscathed too?

So, as I was beginning to plot out a way to go through the ship bit by bit, I decided to take a look at how my knee was getting on. The blood had started to cake over, and it didn't sting as much to touch anymore, but I knew I was still lucky not to hit anywhere else [or with something physically sharper].

Crystal and her family were just mere dots on the horizon now.

I sighed somewhat happily, somewhat saddened, and then I slowly began to walk off the remaining pains, both mental and physical, heading towards the door [on the other side of the small splintered abyss] that led beyond the vessel's bridge.

That small ravine was easily cleared with a jump, strengthened by a thump of my hammer, and it was then that I came to a realisation, my 'epiphany', of sorts.

"I'm going to try my best," I drawled out determinedly. A flicker of a memory, a warm, cherish able one came to mind, to life on my upturned lips. "Just watch me..." _Mom._ "I'll earn their respect," _I'll make you and Poppa proud of me too._ "and my place in their team [if they'll have me]!"

Letting out those feelings sent a wave of calm through my veins, as though I'd drunken a rainbow, and then that natural 'high' came and went. Then life just continued on.

_Or did it just begin?_ came that whispering voice inside my head, the one that can both reassure or berate you, and the one we all have [even if we don't like to admit it]. I'd like to think it was my mum watching over me, no matter how silly it sounded, personally.

I didn't get much time to consider it, as I was forced to commit to memory [whether it be recalled one day, or not], when my ears were prickled by a familiar whirr overhead.

I wasn't alone anymore, and for that fact alone, I beamed at the fox from the skies.

* * *

"Tails!"

The young fox, admittedly mature beyond his years, carefully but swiftly settled himself down in front of me. His blue eyes looked relieved, and somewhat tired? But above all, they looked sorry.

_As hell he should be!_

"I can't believe you didn't answer all my calls on the communicator" I brazenly scolded, waving the tech gadget he'd provided us all so we could _communicate_ with one another in the first place in his face, now scrunching up in what I hoped wasn't confusion [feigned or not].

"I, umm, well..." he muttered weakly, his face turning an embarrassing shade of pink. Tails then gave a short, unfunny laugh at his own mistake.

"Never mind," I dismissed. "Did you find anything?" I said, moving things over to what was really important. I'd only been messing with him really. I wasn't _that_ hung up on it, just had been a little annoyed.

"No... Maybe they really are gone," he mused softly, his tone solemn. I wanted nothing more than to prove that wrong and so I went to grab his left arm, hoping to expel out all the hope that still remained in my heart.

"Oh, I wouldn't write us off so fast you two!"

*_Play LOST – The Gathering_*

It came from across the makeshift Egg Carrier bay. That cocky, yet heroic tone which could only belong to one cobalt furred hedgehog, whom was at this moment helping up one Antoine D'Coolette up onto the vessel's decking from their own hired boat [I presumed]. Everyone else was also there and looked relatively unscathed.

I almost fainted on the floor, half out of pure [blissful] shock, the other at the nerve of said hedgehog for making me [and Tails] so worried about them all! But I didn't. I've done enough dramatics since they'd careened back into my life, and that mild annoyance from just before was rearing itself into an ugly draconian-like form.

But then they all called us out as they closed the gap separating us, and then I didn't know what to think or do. I was annoyed, but obviously very happy to see them all [even if Sonic felt like winding us up in the process].

Thankfully, my body made up my mind for me and I made a beeline for him like my life depended on it [and maybe it did, or at least my sanity] and screamed joyfully, subconsciously lessening it to just under a girly girl's squeal [which I didn't fully class myself as anymore].

"**Guys! ... Sonic!**"

Me and Tails both shouted it at almost the same time, as I closed the distance to Sonic, whilst Tails flocked to what looked like Sally or and Bunnie.

I barely saw Sonic's eyes as our short-haired fur met in a warm embrace, but the audible gasp of surprise [or unease] soon melted away into a touching hug.

_Who knew that Sonic the Hedgehog was one for hugging people?_ I teased him inwardly, jokingly mind; it was a rather... comfortable state.

I clenched my eyes, holding back my tears of relief more easily than I used to, looking around me, looking and feeling for the paths of circumstance [or 'destiny'] that had reunited us once more, wanting to understand and moreover, thank those that weaved them. But, naturally, I wasn't gifted with such, and so I just relaxed into the moment.

_I'm so glad you're okay... All of you... There's so much I need to tell you all. To show you... _

For Amy Rose has grown up.

The pair of us remained like that for what seemed an age [to me], before, like Crystal before him, we parted.

Looking over, I saw that Tails had settled into the moment already too, as he happily allowed himself to be swallowed by the bear-tight hugs of both Sally and Bunnie. His eyes were closed and his lips in a smile that reminded me of being in euphoria. The same kind that I'd undoubtedly experienced with Sonic just now,

Regardless, I was full of questions, and I gestured to them all, a confused expression etched into my face as best as I could muster.

"So where have you guys been? And how did you survive the crash," I asked hastily. And I'd double checked then, just in case, but had come up no different. "without a scratch?" I asked, perplexed.

"Tis a bit of a long story, hon," Bunnie offered breathily. It seemed as though whilst they hadn't been hurt much, that they'd been doing a lot of walking at the very least.

"... I'd put at more of a medium-sized tale to be honest," Sonic chuckled jokingly.

"We'll tell you both on the way, ok?" Sally said firmly, gently nudging us towards their makeshift boat, which was a deep maroon colour. I couldn't tell from that whether it'd been Sonic or Antoine's choice. But then it's not like I'd ever asked Rotor and the girl's what their favourite colours were..._Oh well_, I thought to myself. It doesn't matter.

* * *

"Where are we going now, guys?" Tails piped up, as the Egg Carrier began to fade into the distance, soon to be overwhelmed by the very tides, and become nothing but a fleeting memory for those that'd known and been on it.

_I know I'll keep the good memories I had on there for sure, though_, I thought, as Rotor tended to my wound with what medicinal supplies he'd taken with us [and only he knew just how much he could fit in that backpack of his....]

"We have one more port of call to make before we go home" Sally answered reassuringly. And it was only then that I noticed how different Tails' voice had been. It hadn't broken yet, but it certainly had a more mature edge to it than he had before.

_I wonder..._ I let my thought trail off, unsure how to continue it, as me and Tails locked eyes from opposite sides of the boat. _Yes, maybe it's been a growing day for more than me..._ I smiled lightly in acknowledgement. And so did he.

"And that would be?" I spoke up, curious.

"The Floating Island," came the slightly upbeat tone of Knuckles, who I must've blanked out for one reason or another before, because being next to me he caused me to jump a little.

Or maybe that was simply because I recalled, whilst he _had_ accumulated some good happy[ish] days in the time we'd spent together back then, he was still generally quite reserved and quiet, and bad-tempered at the worst [especially if Sonic says something mockingly]. Never had I seen him so _happy_ – so I didn't know whether to be happy for him, or worried.

"It's time to finally restore my home to the skies," he finished, his eyes gleaming with a determined resolve unlike any I'd ever seen [or experienced].

That jolted something in me. That word.

_Home._

_Maybe... Home isn't just a physical manifestation in the world [and limited to one place], but one that exists wherever you and the ones you love are? And so my 'home' could again be in Knothole once more, in addition to my place [and life] with Amber, Lisa and Zack? _

I mused over this as we left the boat behind and began one half of the last trek across the vivid Mystic Ruins.

With determined strides, and my heart fluttering with joy and a renewed sense of belief in my own abilities, I knew then that I was one step closer to figuring out within myself, an answer to Barbara's question.

"_What do you want in life, Amy Rose?" _

Today, at least, we were going to return to Knothole. Together.

That would be a start.

My new beginning.

* * *

XXXXX

**Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream**

XXXXX

* * *

And thus ends the twenty-second chapter of this story arc!

This was one of the longest chapters ever [other than chapters 5, 6, 9 and 21].

* * *

Sorry for the long gaping timeframe between part one and two, my graphic design work placement has taken up lots of my time, and couple that with periods of actively avoiding writing and having to do reformat one's PC to get rid of a Trojan [didn't lose anything, thankfully, just got rid of all that excess space and stuff I never used], and this chapter simply got left on the shelf for long periods. Sorry.

Anyway! On chapter, I wrote Gamma out, leaving the parts in-between his destruction and re-emergence ambiguous. I leave you, the reader, with my little theory that perhaps the brief contact with Tikal's spirit ignited the Flicky's soul from within Gamma [and thus why it begins to break through].

Of course it doesn't account for everything pre-contact, and there's no evidence that one's spirit [in the whole Sonic universe], can affect things in such a way, but I thought it was an interesting thought, and so I shared it here.

And yes, I gave that electrical baton to ZERO because he's always kind of given me the impression of an old day prison warden [it was only after writing up the battle, finally, that I saw that ZERO had that electrified fists-outstretched spinning attack by the way. And I really didn't want to go back and change it].

* * *

Just the last prelude to the finale to go now… The beginning of 2010 should see this story finished at last [yes, the next chapter will definitely be out in March]!

The previous chapter has been revised for spelling, grammar and plain reading inconsistencies, as has chapter seven, eight and twenty one.

I hope you enjoyed this, and the chapters so far, any comments or ratings would be nice and appreciated! ^-^

* * *

'**Critical Situation' is the next chapter.**

Take care ya'll ***smiley face***


	26. Critical Situation

**Disclaimer**: _I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "**Change The World**" by ARTIST Dream

* * *

**CHAPTER 23: Critical Situation**

[_ROBOTNIK'S POV_]

I was that close.

I'd almost _tasted_ the champagne being served at my declaration parade as official ruler of this entire planet!

Instead I was left with nothing but a ripe, aching defeat.

I lamented over Chaos' defeat like this as my Egg Mobile took me further into the jungle recesses and closer to my final destination. The humidity causing my face to perspire that scummy stuff called sweat. I hated it. To myself it was but a sign of weakness in the body. Still, I had my own reasons not to roboticize my whole being just yet...

_I'd been that close to wiping them all out for good!_ I roared inwardly.

I had cared not for my nephew's sniveling – my plans, weeks of planning and excavating, hours of taming and days of scouring had gone down in flames, emerald-green wisps in fact – it'd taken all the patience I had within me not to have thrown him into its obliterating core with it.

He had a niche intellect when it came to engineering [though I was the supreme mind, naturally], but he had sought me out when his deadbeat father threw him out – and for what? Merely manipulating people, his so called 'friends', and gaining from it? People do that all the time, it was called life!

Snively, the whimpering wuss he may be, had just grown up faster than they all had to the ways of the world. He had...

My mind went blank for a moment or two [though I blamed the branch that'd just swatted me in the face – I was on the last straight to the lake now].

What did my former society call it? ... Ah yes. They'd say Snively has 'spunk'.

What a hilariously _stupid_ word.

_Ah well. Language itself will be broken down and perfected under my perfect rule_, I thought gladly, dispelling such pointless thoughts about the remaining bees that were my kind [all talk, no action – Station Square's 'secret' military couldn't hope to stand against me, if they ever tried].

But yes, Snively was an asset, not a perfect one by any means, but he had the right attitude and was loyal to whatever cause he gagged after. So I wouldn't kill him just like that, no [I'd never admit anything regarding our ancestry's influence on such decisions], even if his whining is very, _very_ annoying – as this morning had only cemented further, so much so that it could be said to be.

* * *

_[FLASHBACK]_

"_Uncle, it's been almost half a day now. You haven't slept at all. You've got to eat _something!" S_nively crowed in my ears. It hurt my frontal sinuses, and thus my eyes. _

_And I'd only gotten back a half hour ago from Station Square...Did I not _deserve_ any solitude?_

"_Our chance will come again. But you've got to take care of yourself... It's not like you to just give up, sire," he continued animatedly. "Next time we'll destroy the Princesses' band of freedom fighters, and that blue hedgehog once and for all! You'll see!"_

Snively_, I groaned inwardly, dangerously. I just wasn't in the mood. And ripe anger overcame me again._

_I slapped away the dish of slimy soup, bread and eggs from his grip with a resounding 'SMASH'. They splattered all over the floor in bits and pieces, smelling suddenly quite fowl, and looking just what I'd wanted Chaos to have done to those meddlesome _pests_ . _

"_Never mention them in my presence again, Snively. _Ever_," I said bitterly, wanting nothing me than to sulk in peace and quiet. Sleep would come eventually, and then plans of vengeance... _

_As my pint-sized nephew had been about to flee out of the room, squealing, just then the computer monitor buzzed into life, the millions of zeroes and ones dots beginning to form into a crystal clear depiction. _

_This sudden interruption startled [and halted] Snively to the spot, just next to my chamber's exit door, but served to only mildly intrigue me. For the video call was from my Robotropolis base, my blinking top sub-monitor indicated. _

_It turned out to be my newest technical asset, a genius of a different kind to my own with one red cybernetic eye and one arm dripped in cool, hard, _glorious_ metal._

_I'd guessed the retort before Snively had even uttered it this time. _

"_Oh. What does that _furball_ want?" Snively had sneered. A bit off my original prediction, but it'd do._

_Needless to say the two were at regular loggerheads with one another, out of pure technical jealously or and fear of replacement I didn't know – though Snively usually initiated it, being the 'hot-head' out of the pair. My new assistant was a reservoir of calmness and used rebuttals of wit or un-acknowledgement to snare Snively, though one look in _his_ remaining eye that day we'd met had told me that he had various deemed 'sociopathic' tendencies under the surface, just etching to release when the moment arose. The uneducated masses of furries and bees would undoubtedly sticky label me the same I knew, and so let them, for only a supreme intellect like myself could see such useful traits._

"_I was just reporting in, Doctor Robotnik" he replied calmly, with a pronounced tongue, his aura as always speaking for himself. That he was fully in control of the situation. Snively's forehead I noted with a quick flicker, looked to almost burst with the protruding vein rearing from it. _

_Now that _was_ funny, I had to admit._

_My gun armed friend spent the next few minutes detailing the work into various projects I'd assigned him. And damn the eternal heavens above, he liked to _talk_. I'd had to instruct him to move only onto the results of said projects._

_They'd all done well, much to Snively's distasteful expression, which prompted more vocals between the pair. _

"_How is Project: CHAOS doing?" He concluded, ignoring the last shot at him from a certain twit, his tone coated with obvious, almost _drooling_ curiosity. _

"_Things have changed in recent hours friend," I'd interrupted, short getting sick of their constant banter [though I'd normally find it amusing to watch, I just didn't care for it, especially _today_], before explaining the fall of the Egg Carrier, Chaos, as well as the Floating Island. _

_His face had lit up in maniacal glee – but I'd cut him off with a swipe of my hand before his vocal chords even began to shake. _

"_No, you will not be coming with me. The designated time is not at hand – assuming Knuckles didn't drown with the rest of them–"_

"_The hedgehog and his band of do-gooders wouldn't go down so easily," Snively had mused. And I had to painfully admit that he was right [and saying that out loud was the worse]._

_My gun armed ally's expression had turned into an irritable scowl, but he bowed his head with obedience nevertheless and we then said goodbye._

_He knew his place. _

_Respecting me, his superior, was the least he could do._

_I did save his life, after all._

_[END FLASHBACK]_

_

* * *

  
_

It was then that I realised that getting rid of those Mobian rats would indefinitely never come that easy, and so I hastened my pace.

"That blue spikeball and his friends will just have to meet their maker by some enlisted help... Ha ha, ha ha!" I bellowed to the silent skies.

Forest vermin that hadn't scurried away at my sheer presence now did, and so let them. Less they get in my way. They'd all meet the same fate one day or another, what's a little period of hope-filled living denial before the slaughter? I thought with maddening glee.

From this chaos I will bring order – whether the woodland furries willingly succumbed to it or not. Their existence denied.

I'd reached a clearing just by the lake in question now. The sunlight making it glimmer not unlike some charlatan's 'music' show. God I _hated_ those.

But as I let my Egg Mobile gently skim across the water's surface, and although I'd drunken a glass or two before I'd gone out [albeit with a trickle of liquor], I still couldn't resist a handful of the crystal-clear stuff down my throat and across my forehead. It helped counterbalance the cooling humidity with my body's own temperature at least.

Some of it trickled cleanly down the craft's right rear view mirror, not that I paid it any heed.

My destination lay just ahead, a prize I'd had once before, and one I'd let go all too easily I recalled with boiling fury.

The once 'Floating' Island was now nothing but a husk of land without it's so called 'Guardian' and power generator Chaos Emeralds, for now, bobbing atop this lake.

I only hoped for _his_ sake that this treasure trove on the echidna's island is worth it, for he'd make a worthy test subject for my 'Brotherhood' of Badniks otherwise...

And lament struck me like a twist of a knife in my gut, ripe rage threatening to burst through my stomach, again, for I'd been here just a few days ago [well, off-land in my Egg Carrier and awaiting Metal Sonic's success] thinking I'd found such a treasure unutilized by the dismal 'Guardian'.

And a _Water God_ at that, I'd thought very interestedly. And I liked to put things to good use.

I was halfway across the body of liquid when I screamed blindly, cursing Sonic and his furry friends, and not to mention Chaos himself.

_So much for being a _God_..._ I snorted, recalling his last moments.

Following the dark emerald enveloping the echidna's crimson body, the world had suddenly become nothing but blinding and disorienting white light, one which borne no sound, nor let any in. It was like a black hole, only white, and a perfect prison if I ever saw one.

Thankfully (for me), it had only been a temporarily side-effect of whatever the rat had set into motion.

It'd only cost me my prime war air vessel on top of Chaos' obliteration...

I sat down the Egg Mobile and clambered sluggishly onto the ancient grounds as a bitter mix of spit and snot swam up my throat, so thick I could've told you it was oil and you'd have suckered it up.

_I should have killed that idiot echidna when I'd had the chance!_ I slammed my fist into the damp earth.

I'd had plenty of opportunities... _Even Snively had him alone and vulnerable at one point!_

Though it looked like there was more to him than met the initial eye, I'd twigged, spitting out the horrid concoction.

My newest ally had told me to head to the raised Emerald Chamber first, a simple enough feat, even for a sleep-deprived tyrant like myself.

My lament had continued on into this day, as that _fox brat_ had not only stamped out my plans to wipe Station Square off the map [I'd wanted to do it for years], but he defeated _me_. I, Robotnik, the tyrant that struck fear into everyone who heard it whispered on the winds.

_But he... and I..._ my thoughts wobbled, I tried to defend my own expectations of myself from shattering into pieces.

These furries were going drive me _INSANE!_ I thought hastily, giddily, as the temple-sque structure, that must've been the raised Emerald Chamber, came into view through the jungle foliage.

"Was I losing my touch...?" I bawled out to the empty, endless air.

I hadn't felt this low, this _useless_, since childhood. And there Uncle Gerald wasn't around to make me feel better anymore.

He was long dead.

Though I couldn't quite remember just how and when he had, I mused after a minute or so.

_Interesting... _

I was at the base of the echidna's pathetic excuse for a protected shrine now. My footsteps making small, hollow 'thump, thump' sounds as I stepped off my stationary parked Egg Mobile.

I was finally here. Now all I had to do was radio him and then I'd give Snively the word – I'd told him to destroy our temporarily jungle base and to head on back to Robotropolis, but to leave me a platoon of Swatbots to help me hoard out whatever 'treasure' I've been said to find here].

Cursing my over-eagerness to get out of my craft, I tried to haul myself back in, fiddling with the radio as I did so.

It was then I heard it.

A hollow, yet ethereal whisper on the wind, like some siren out of those fun-to-read mythology books.

It sent a shiver up my spine.

Upon turning around though, I saw [and heard] nothing. I was the only sentient creature on this doomed island.

Was I going insane already? I fretted fearfully in my thoughts, the air suddenly becoming rather constricting on my throat. My eyes started swaying across to the nearest rear view mirror of my Egg Mobile, the left one. It looked dirty, yet shined in places, even in this jungle oven.

I'd gotten the radio out now and had entered the security code, albeit a little jittery, for me.

But I never got the chance to depress the 'SEND' button, as that hollow, ethereal sounding siren trumpeted into a decibel ringing roar as it scurried with haste across the plains from the jungle to whence I was.

A loud smack to the back of my cranium was all I registered as the world swiftly turned black.

_Who could have done this...? Were they back al–_

Then, flopping to the ground, I knew no more.

* * *

**MYSTIC RUINS ZONE / FLOATING ISLAND / EMERALD SHRINE / 15:36 PM**

[_NARRATOR'S POV_]

The Freedom Fighters and the Guardian, Knuckles, had gotten to the Emerald Shrine with haste, thanks to the system of Zoom Tubes that ran underneath the island's surface.

But they weren't prepared to see what they now saw.

For on the ground, just on the bottom steps to the shrine, was the seemingly lifeless body of one dictator, Dr Robotnik.

"Robotnik!" Sally cried, first in shock, then in confusion, before racing over to him with a stern expression on her face. Her boots crumpling the grass underneath as she went.

"What's lard bucket doing here?" Sonic wondered out loud, before picking up the pace behind the auburn princess. He knew that he'd hurt her as much as any of them, so he wasn't about to allow her emotions to get the better of her.

Sally wasn't a killer.

He'd gotten to her just after she'd administered a swift blow to his guts, restraining her with both arms. Robotnik himself has made no indication that he'd been bothered by it by not even grunting, yet alone howling himself awake.

"Let me go, Sonic!" she cried. "He needs to pay... Before we chain him up... He needs to pay for killing my father!" Sally continued disdainfully, before regaining her composure.

After leaving the cobalt hedgehog's grip she'd gone straight over to Bunnie, who gave her a reassuring hug.

And whilst Sally's reaction had been overly emotional, the Guardian's had been the complete opposite, as stomping just past the sprawled out body, he halted and said flatly, devoid of care:

"Tie him up and make sure if he wakes up, that he comes nowhere nearer the shrine. I'm going to restore the Master Emerald and this island back where it belongs."

_Not to mention myself_, he left unsaid.

So as the others proceeded to just that with some rope, Bunnie's, the crimson echidna ascended the shrine with swift, yet meaningful steps, the wind rustling his makeshift emerald shard necklace like a wind chime as he did.

To Amy Rose, whose wounded leg no longer made her stagger so much, Knuckles' actions really made this moment more poignant. As though they were about to witness something very important [not that the Master Emerald's restoration itself wasn't], but a little voice in the back of her mind seemed to be hinting at something more.

_Convergence_, it whispered in her ears.

_Huh? What do you mean?_ She'd asked, well aware the probable pointlessness of such.

It didn't reply back.

Knuckles, by now, had taken off his necklace and the shards of the Master Emerald collective were hovering just a foot in the air above him, gleaming with delight. And their light made the Guardian's determined eyes shine the most pure, ripest purple the Freedom Fighters had ever seen.

_This is..._ It began softly, suddenly, almost jolting Amy to the ground. Not that anyone would've noticed, for a pair of eyes was on Robotnik and the remainder on Knuckles.

_A point of convergence,_ it finally answered to Amy, just as the shards all at once rained down like shooting stars, and then a brilliant explosion of white light, humming and thundering sounds, filled their world, just for a second.

Then it was over.

The Master Emerald now stood proud and complete once more, with its equally proud Guardian by its side. It looked as though it'd never been fragmented all, the pieces fitting together in a perfect weave, each edged facet of the emerald looking like a vein of sorts; the Master Emerald the beating heart that bound it together.

And so as congratulations were being fired around [Sonic had given Knuckles the thumbs up treatment and was now dragging him into a shoulder-to-shoulder 'man-hug' with Tails and himself, much to his awkward shock], it was then that Amy Rose knew that this day was far from over somehow.

* * *

Almost instantaneously the ground rumbled, not unlike the booming thunder that had coursed over the cloudy night that had led to the Master Emerald's shattering, and Chaos' emergence.

But this time, Knuckles noted calmly to himself, there was going to be no mess-ups. Whether he ever saw the spirit of Tikal again, be it tomorrow, next week or next month, or even the following year, he _wasn't_ going to disgrace his forefathers anymore.

He was better than that, and it was time to prove it.

Looking around in awe were the gathered Freedom Fighters, still with an unconscious Robotnik in roped tow, looking at the flurries of white cloud massage the island as it ascended, like fingers, before trailing off the edges in the huge vacuum of air space surrounding the planet.

And then slowly, with a faint drawn-out 'popping' sound, the island rose just above the clouds, and they were met with an endless carpet of cerulean blue skies.

"What a view, ain't it Antoine?" Bunnie breathed, standing next to the coyote in question [Sally and Amy were now overlooking the unconscious tyrant].

"Oui. It is ooh la la, mademoiselle," he said simply, just as amazed.

The tranquil peace was soon silenced, however.

"Hey! What a minute!" Tails fretted, rising eyebrows all around as he stepped hastily in front of Knuckles, whose gloved right hand currently rested on Master Emerald as he mediated.

"It's great that the Floating Island and Master Emerald are back where they belong, but how are we going to get home?" The fox boy asked somewhat more timidly of the Guardian.

What he didn't voice was the aching disappointment in himself over the very thought that the Tornado 2's wreckage was lost to him at the bottom of the ocean [or wherever it'd ended up].

The Guardian still hadn't replied, and a certain someone was beginning to grow impatient.

"Hey Knucklehead, he asked you a question!" Sonic spat out, striding up in front of the echidna, rather annoyed at this seeming rude act of ignorance. The ticked off hedgehog knew the Guardian was no more asleep than he wished he could be right now.

"Calm down, you Blue Showoff," came the composed reply pursed through the Guardian's lips, on the verge of a smirk. He opened his eyes and turned irises' attentions to Tails. "I'm sorry about your plane, Tails, but you needn't worry about getting home... Since I last saw you all I've fixed up the island's ancient navigational systems, so I take us wherever you wish," he finished, getting to his feet.

"Really? That's awesome man!" Sonic said approvingly. He was actually rather impressed with the echidna's progress in the last few days [though that would remain on the quiet if he had anything to say about it].

"That would be great, thank you Knuckles," Sally offered.

"Okay, due west it is then," the Guardian nodded respectfully to them all, before sliding in a hidden slab in the raised shrine which caused a staircase to appear in the nearby floor descending downward.

"Just make sure he keep him restrained," he motioned to Robotnik, naturally very apprehensive about the tyrant learning anymore secrets of his island home, before vanishing info the darkness.

The staircase then went as soon as it'd come, leaving just a clean stone floor in its wake once again.

"Well I guess it's just a wailing game now," Sonic yawned, grabbing Tails' shoulder and heading off for a chat [and lay down, presumably] on the outer rim of the Angel Forest.

Amy Rose, meanwhile, was with Rotor and guarding their unconscious foe. But even the purple tech guy had noted her changing expressions during the previous exchange of words.

Now [against what may turn out to be a bad case of judgement on his part], he asked her just what the matter was.

"I don't know," she fidgeted quietly. "I guess I'm just wondering whether I should go back with you guys. I mean I already said goodbye to Amber and everyone, just in case, but I just feel that should do it properly now,"

"I'm sure they'd understand," Rotor offered gently. "But you best make up your mind soon as this island will be moving soon," he advised.

The hot pink furred hedgehog nodded in an airy kind of contemplation, before then hauling herself to her feet so she could go and ask Knuckles to give her an extra minute or two to decide.

_Not that I'm looking forward to trying so_, she bemoaned inwardly. _He can't be persuaded so easily._

Then a slight tremor shook the island – they were moving again, but this time west, not up – and a strained slur hit the air, causing the notion to be forgotten.

Something Amy Rose might soon live to regret.

* * *

"Ugh... What was that?" he groaned, rubbing the back of his domed head as he wobbled to a full stance.

How long had he been out? he wondered tensely.

And it was then that Sally and everyone surrounded the tyrant with hasted earnest, their eyes twinkling with a shared emotion as they blocked his retreat. Wait. Make that _two_ emotions that Robotnik despised; smarts, they looked as though they were the _rat_ that'd gotten the open casket of wine and had devoured it all greedily [to utilise a familiar saying in a slightly different way], he thought. They thought they were smarter than _him_. This feigned act of intelligence was paired with a glimmer of hope – the certainty that was his imprisonment forevermore [in their eyes].

It made him sick to the stomach, but most of all, it made him want to howl with laughter. For with a slimy smirk and chuckle, and one utterance, he'd soon wipe such blind hope from them all.

And yes, his calculating mind was quick on its feet. He'd already noted Knuckles' presence-less.

The long haired mongrel is probably down below, tinkering with his island prisons' systems to get these rats back home, the dictator deduced quickly. And whilst he knew his attempts at an escape, alone, were futile, his dark purple-blue glasses still slithered subtly across the jungle-scape.

"Don't yah even think about it lard bucket," Bunnie fiercely pointed out, as she held down his wriggling arms, the same ones which had two grubby hands trying to wrestle out of his roped restraints.

He couldn't worm himself free, so he spat at her face.

Or tried to anyway [it missed].

Bunnie promptly saluted her angered friends to stand at ease, which they did so slowly, but reluctantly.

"You know, you could be so much more than this Miss _'Rabbot'_," Robotnik said suddenly, using his eyes and vocal tones as small, but booming trumpets of sympathy. He seemed to look genuinely interested [and concerned].

"Huh? Are you mah fortune teller now, Robuttnik?" was her idly response, using Sonic's well-used nickname for their egg-domed adversary. And wisely not trusting a word out of his gaping mouth.

However, he ignored that rebuttal and continued on, as though it'd just been the wind [or maybe he had, Bunnie thought, for didn't all megalomaniac tyrants love the sound of their own voice?]

"I can tell that beneath that southern attitude of yours," he sneered. "That you aren't at peace living with your half robotised state – and never will be, not really," Robotnik articulated gently, yet slimily. "And probably dream about chopping said limbs from your body, yes?" he chuckled.

Bunnie didn't meet his, or anyone else's eyes, but managed to allow only a small feral growl escape from her lips.

But his met with her reluctant grassy green pools as he uttered his next set of words, his bargaining chip.

"So I offer you this," Robotnik began boldly. "Join me–" A feminine laugh. "And I shall make you whole again, fully robotic, and with all the power and freedom that you'll relinquish from it," he gestured smoothly, his glasses giving away nothing, nor his even expression.

Bunnie was silent for a while, and looking so contemplated in thought, that Sally [at least], for one shiver of a second, feared that her best friend be tempted by the dark man's offer.

It wasn't a promise, yet.

And when she saw her friend's lips curl up in that familiar smirk, she breathed a sigh of relief. Bunnie too had realised it wasn't a promise, and not one Robotnik would ever keep without sacrificing her free will, her very soul in the process.

"Heh. We have a saying back in the south," Bunnie chimed playfully, before hungrily grabbing the cuff of his collar and boring her eyes into his [or as much as one could do, considering the lab glasses].

"Stick yah offer where the sun don't shine!" she roared in defiance, and was about to let him go and walk away, when he opened his mouth wide once more.

This time it hit, the thick slobber trailing caressingly down her left cheek.

Her emerald pools lit up in a momentarily fire, but the rabbit woman simply growled and ignored the challenge, instead wiping the disgusting stuff off whilst silently praying that there was a watering hole thereby.

For Bunnie could still feel its lingering touch and smell. It made her feel _claimed_, and thus totally defiled.

"Well, I was only being _kind_, my southern rat," the tyrant said venomously.

Bunnie halted in her tracks, turned around and charged at him, feral, a feat that would surely knock his block off [followed closely behind Antoine and the rest]. But this didn't come to pass, for she stepped down as Sally strode right on past her, sitting down with one leg crossed over the other on a small flatted rock, and gazing right up into the void of the dark man's shielded eyes. The Princess [none of them in fact] had never seen his eyes, and she briefly wondered whether her father, King Max, had seen them before he was... taken from her.

And despite not being even as superstitious as to worry about 'seven years of bad luck' upon clumsily dropping a small handheld mirror per say, she knew that were she to snatch off those glasses right now, she'd be caught right in the dark headlight embers of a devil.

"Tell me something, Robotnik," the Princess, the last remaining person of the Acorn dynasty, insisted unexpectedly.

"Why call up such a stalling move and then not make use of it?" she enquired, pointing to the ropes still tightened around the large man's hands, and no visibly looser.

A smirk crawled its way up the tyrant's face.

"Maybe I wasn't stalling, _Princess_," was the slow, horrid lip-licking reply.

"We outnumber you. And none of your robot lackeys are here to save you. You're ours, and next to come crumbling down will be your empire," Sally asserted, un-visibly flinched by the absolute certainly that had lingered tightly in Robotnik's tone.

"Yeah, Snively probably couldn't open a pack of Oreos without some robots help, yet alone run your 'awesome' empire for more than a few hours. A day tops," Sonic chimed in, not at all hungry himself, of course.

"Ah, my _dear_ Freedom Fighters," the large foe began dramatically, dripped with lots of woe. "Whilst what you say may be the case (for now), I won't be needing them today," their large foe breathed confidently, taking one step backwards toward the encompassing jungle.

Another tremor shook the island and then a patch of rain came down across from whence they all were, gladly confirming what his subconscious had played out.

Robotnik had seen a vision of the ocean, but upon closer inspection one could see tens of thousands of mangled husks bobbing in and out of the surface, which had rapidly turned a murky crimson. Everything for as far as the naked eye could see was devoured in a world-destructing storm, and right in its core were piercing snake green eyes.

He wasn't gifted with the ability of foresight or 'magic'. Nor did he care for such things; being a man of science [such thoughts would be detrimental to his vision of world order, though utilising such mystic elements for such ends was fairgame nevertheless].

And as the soaked ground retreated and reformed into a familiar figure, Robotnik was very much relishing the current mystic card in play.

* * *

The liquid creature bore the same humanoid form as Sonic had witnessed that night [the one which seemed so long ago now, but in reality had only been four nights back], with its small droned head which split into 3 spines and the squishy pink brain matter that pulsated within its core.

It had been regressed into its first stage, but from the way it was growling, a disorienting shrill akin to what Robotnik had heard before; its body of concentrated chaos energised water was hungry for the Chaos Emeralds once more.

The Freedom Fighters knew it too and so, just as Robotnik had predicted, they went charging in.

_Heh. Like throwing sugar to a hoard of ravenous wasps_, the tyrant thought [and he'd done just that once too, the glass bottle becoming their acidic tomb] as he quietly began to tiptoe backward. Even his 'guard', the sentimental walrus twit and the hyperactive brat, had upped and left him be.

"Ya know, being back at stage one ain't gonna cut it with us this time liquid head," Sonic cheekily taunted eagerly as he gained aerial momentum, kudos of Tails, preparing for a downward slice with his left foot.

Princess Sally looked to be more reserved on that line of thought, but she also didn't want to watch this opportunity to subdue the Chaos creature go by. The Chaos Emeralds were only just below there, after all.

The fact the biggest threat had been captured had calmly slid back into her sub-conscious.

"Guys! Can you feel it?" Tails said awe-fully, just as Sonic connected with Chaos' stomach, after the water beast had jumped up, and ended up skiing through it, with only an extra sheen of moisture-covered spines to show for himself.

Amy Rose's raised eyebrow revealed that she could not 'feel' whatever the young fox was going on about, but the rest of the Freedom Fighter's, after a moment or two of thoughtful expressions, then began to really think about what was different about this fight, with this creature.

It hit them just as Tails voiced it out loud, allowing a slight wave of relief to pass over them.

"Chaos' fear effect (for whatever reason) is gone!"

None of them ever wanted to experience _that_ nightmare vision ever again.

The tiptoed-like footsteps of one large tyrant, meanwhile, crushed through the undergrowth, the retreating sounds being clouded by the escalating battle. It brought a smile to the hard-featured man's face.

How _stupid_ they were indeed! Robotnik thought giddily.

And now there it was, right on the inner edges of the Shrine's clearing was the sleek domed craft, one of his first by-hand constructions, the simply named Egg-O-Matic [or Egg Mobile for short]. Thankfully, it looked relatively undisturbed by Chaos' sneak attack on the rounded tyrant to his inspecting eyes; that is, the front-mounted circular light, to the mirrors [now both simmering clean], as well as the setup for additional extensions – for it was also his only means of escaping this 'cursed' island and its current inhabitants.

_In fact, the only thing I'll have to put up with is a slightly wet seat_, Robotnik thought demurely, as he slowly clambered in. Despite his slow motions, this was no real hassle due to his size, for it had been made by his own hands for himself, though the dark man was feeling the tinkering of an idea or four in his engrossing mind in order to make it even more accessible [not to mention luxurious –for what reason one may've ask, to which Robotnik would've replied 'why ever not?'].

"Going somewhere, _Doctor?_" came a calm, yet tempered whisper from behind.

It caused the large tyrant, and robotics extraordinaire, to almost topple over on his sole remaining free leg, the other thick chunk having already gone over the rim of the Egg-O-Matic.

But instead of turning around to show any respect, Robotnik simply remained standing with his back to the interrupter, and gave a stifled laugh.

"So the gullible, and apparently _tone-deaf_ Guardian, finally makes his appearance," were the words that coiled off his sly tongue.

A growl, and what sounded like a quick grinding of his spiked fists, was all Knuckles gave, but it was enough to bring a refreshing smirk to the dark man's face.

_Now_, he thought seriously as the Guardian began to close the distance, undoubtedly in order to wrestle him back to the Freedom Fighters, _I just have to bend him to my will for just a few seconds..._

He thought further for a moment before speaking again, turning around as he did so.

"Did you know, Knuckles," Robotnik began, a pained look outlining his cheeks "that my Egg Mobile here can be fitted with an array of effective weaponry?"

Silence was his only reply, but the crimson echidna seemed to remember this fact nevertheless, as a flash of cursed recognition came and went within the blink of an eye.

But the dark man had noticed it, and so spun his tale even further.

"I was only going to go get such a weapon and come back to destroy Chaos," the large man spoke merrily, with just an ounce or two of persuasive tones. "It's a danger to us all rogue, you know."

Knuckles rubbed his forehead in what could only be described as mild [growing] frustration. He hated listening to this man and his spindle of lies, so he stepped forward and roughly grabbed the tyrant's rope-bound wrists.

Robotnik awkwardly stumbled forward onto one knee, gasping for breath from the humid air.

"You don't have a base nearby," Knuckles batted away, stating it rather a matter of fact [though if it was but a mere assumption from the fact Robotnik's empire did not yet extend to this region].

"I had a temporarily one setup not too far from here actually..." Robotnik enlightened. _That is if Snively hasn't destroyed it and left for Robotropolis already, that is_, he added personally.

* * *

"Cut the crap Robotnik," Knuckles spat, beginning to drag the dark man along the sprouting earth to where the Freedom Fighters were fighting it out with the new bane in their lives, Chaos.

"Oh my, such colourful language!" the tyrant almost squealed with giddiness, even as he was being dragged along the mucky ground. "These Mobians really have taught you so _many_ atrocities. Ha, ha, ha..."

Knuckles halted in his hauling action and turned his eyes onto Robotnik, that calm, yet tempered expression seemingly permanently etched into his face then slowly morphing into a small smirk.

"I wouldn't say that," he began honestly, as his dreadlocks fluttered in the wind. "Sure, there is a lot of stuff that I don't like (mainly to do with you) and don't get, but I just said 'crap' because what I _wanted_ to say to you was in the old echidna language – one you wouldn't understand," the Guardian said, a look of revulsion and anger on his features as he bore his narrowed lavender slits at the dark man.

A momentary flash of surprise washed over Robotnik's face, he knew that Knuckles had a temper [and that he hated him as much as the rest of the furry pests], so to learn he had his own special word for him was at first surprising, and then intriguing.

"Oh? And what would that word be then, _old friend_?" he goaded, pursing his lips into a ravenous grin.

_Anything to distract him for just a few more seconds_ was what Robotnik was currently thinking, as his plump fingers wiggled with the still-inserted ignition key of the Egg Mobile.

The tyrant was betting on the sudden flight [in his direction] to distract Knuckles long enough for a blow to his head [robotised limbs, in Robotnik's case, his entire right arm, came in handy like that], and then for him to make his great escape.

The Freedom Fighters and Chaos could kill each other for all he cared. In fact, it would be respectful of them to do just that, he chuckled inwardly.

"Fine," Knuckles sighed, slightly loosening his grip on Robotnik's ropes. "I don't know why I'm even bothering, but the echidna curse word I was going to say was –"

A sudden screaming torrent of water finished that sentence forever, as the Freedom Fighters slammed into the pair riding [against their will] a small tidal wave.

"Arghh!" the gathered all uttered in various tones, as most of them began to lose consciousness.

A simmer of cobalt bopped near the Guardian, and he haste-fully brought the hedgehog back to the surface. Even he knew [and respected] Sonic's fear of water, for it made him, for a time, simply Mobian and not some perfectly scripted, cocky hero.

"... Thanks... Knuckles," Sonic spoke strainfully, yet with a grateful smile on his face and a just barely raised thumbs up signature out of the receding chaotic waters.

Knuckles then realised that he held onto the thick raggedy material no more, and upon quickly alerting this to Sonic's attention, swiftly began scouting the area.

He could see no trace [on the surface at least] and his vision was beginning to cloud.

And Chaos was nowhere to be seen.

_The Chaos Emeralds – it's going to be able to get them all!_ Knuckles realised with horror, straining with all his might to fight against the inevitable darkness, swimming frantically straight on to their location, buried just under a door [or several feet of earth].

But the waters were too strong, too focused on all their weakest pressure points to do anything of any merit, and so before the pair were carried away into the darkness, they saw Chaos leap from his self-appointed water spout above the waters behind them and plunge into the untouched ground ahead, vanishing from sight.

Leaving behind a primal scream of what could only be the purest delight.

* * *

It was a cocoon of darkness, and one that was ever revolving slowly; or at least that it was a huddled crimson figure figured it to be.

_This pitch black has enveloped us all_, Knuckles thought, somewhere between his subconscious and conscious mind.

Despite fainting out separately, it seemed as though they were all here in this place together. He could _feel_ them, but couldn't see them [or anything for that matter] in this darkness.

To a religious man it would've seemed that the 'hell creature', Chaos, had literally swallowed them all. And even Knuckles, a faithful soul to the Master and Chaos Emeralds, was beginning to have such lingering chills slowly crawl into his mind.

Who knew what Chaos' hunger was like when he was 'Perfect', as Robotnik had declared once or twice to the Freedom Fighters, as he surely was by now?

_This can't be one of Tikal's visions..._ the Guardian thought faithfully. _No, it couldn't be._

_Could it?_

The young male, burdened with an almighty responsibility an age ago, didn't know what to do now. For he not only resided in darkness, but he could feel no body to even fruitlessly walk around this space [if it was even transverse able], and so he resigned himself to thinking some more.

"_Is this place... death?_" Knuckles thought out loud. Though he had no idea if there was even anyone to hear him, so maybe his mind was just replaying back certain words and he was just tricking himself with an imaginary thrown voice [his own].

The thought of him dead was more in worry of what would become of the Floating Island [as he assumed Chaos would've had his teeth into the Master Emerald by now], the only home he [would?] ever know, than the fact he might actually be departing the mortal realm to plains unknown.

_And I will do anything to get back to the Floating Island and the Master Emerald_, the Guardian thought unwaveringly.

Even if he had to fight through all the monsters that supposedly lay at the door to the underworld [a place that his people had once deemed the Special Zone; the 'Nightmare Country' to be precise] – he would find a way to remain anchored to the world of the living!

And if he found the others in turn then great, but if not... Then he'd have to escape alone.

Knuckles' last furry of thoughts, a delicate balance between the solitary one track mind he'd grown into all of his life and the bonds of friendship [and enemies] that had exploded into his life just a year or two previous, was then halted by a warm curtain of white, which enveloped him like paint does a full canvas.

He left with a smile on his face and one word in mind.

_Tikal. _

_

* * *

  
_

_*Play Sonic Adventure – Mystic Ruins: The Past*_

The others [minus Sonic] were the first to awaken from the darkness, which in reality was instead a side effect of the chaotic energy being exposed to the vengeful thoughts of Chaos, and not the falling path to the Mobian 'Underworld', whatever and wherever it may be.

Had any one of them had had a great imbalance of uncontrolled rage [and let's be honest, they each had at least one reason for holding such thoughts, all different and at the same time all the same], then they likely would've been drowned by the darkness entirely.

"Y'know, I really have no idea what in tarnation is going on here – but I want out!" Bunnie exasperated as she hugged herself, trying to hide the shiver of fear running over her body that could see. Antoine too, fretfully seconded that notion with a quick nod.

Before anyone could utter another word about their white room surroundings, black eyes overlooking a firm tusked-stout then caught some form of movement to their collective right.

A distorted light, a haze of pinky red [and thereafter cobalt blue], then shimmered into perspective – and unsurprisingly, it was Knuckles and Sonic.

Still, a wave of comfort was felt by everyone present now that they were all together again.

And Knuckles, having experienced this 'past / dream world' the most, explained how he felt that they were on a greater wave, akin to lounging back on the surface of a clear river, the air abundant, cool and crisp, and slowly sailing down it to wherever it ended.

"Beautiful metaphor," Sally applauded. And the rest didn't think it was too shabby either, so they slowly took his advice and sat down, all huddled up and letting the feeling this place had work its magic on them.

The group felt it almost instantaneously [though Knuckles had obviously given into it the second he'd arrived], and it _was_ like taking a river ride. The walls both so far away and yet so near them were a myriad of white streaks, ethereal, which flowed like the body of a great river as it made its way to the sea, to the single source.

"This feeling..." Amy murmured lightly, eyes shut. "It's like a child being cradled by a parent, a mother, a mother... That's what it reminds me of," she described dreamily, letting warm, tender memories of her own parents relax her as they made their way down times stream.

"Yeah..." everyone breathed. "It does".

Except Knuckles, whom didn't feel like that at all, and not simply because he never knew his parents [and thus not want such cradling felt like], but because this was Tikal guiding them here, Tikal who'd whisked them away from Chaos' darkness... And he just couldn't connect such a feeling to her.

"Knuckles!" someone shouted his way, sounding almost miles away.

And when the Guardian turned around, he was mildly surprised to find that it wasn't Sally or Sonic shouting adamantly for his attention, but that of Tails. Knuckles' also noted with haste that he was pointing at something. Something _he_ needed to see.

Knuckles did exactly that, and came face to face with the very person who'd found a place to stay inside his head for the last few days straight. But the spirit called Tikal was no longer that warm, hope-filled sphere of pink light; she was instead in her real form, an echidna, just like himself.

His amethyst hues just about met her ocean eyes before she spoke.

"Knuckles or Tails may have told you of me," the petite shrine priestess began somewhat timidly.

The respective Freedom Fighters nodded their heads in truthful unison.

She continued after another moment to gather her thoughts. "I am here to show you the truth. The truth of Chaos, of me, and of our race, Knuckles," she stated with an aura of finality, at the end looking at the crimson warrior whom was just about holding himself together from everything that happened.

And then, in no time at all, the draped curtain of white began to dilute with rushes of colour; vibrant greens, deep dark blues and natural creams. And from their collective shared experiences they knew one thing for sure.

They had arrived in the past.

Then those vivid hues suddenly became drenched in crimson twilight.

* * *

_It's just as before_, Knuckles thought, as the small stone shrine, surrounded by a moat of water, appeared in front of them, as if coming out from behind a mirage, all hazy and fragmented, before then becoming as clear as a polished mirror.

The twilight hues once again foretold that the shrine was covered in flames once more.

The sight was enough to draw fresh unease from the others in the group.

_But have we arrived _before_ or _after_ I met Tikal last time?_ He thought sagely. _And before she went up the stairs to see the Master Emerald...? _

It was then that [one] of the things amiss slowly came to Sonic's mind.

"Hey guys," he began cautiously, hopefully. "Where's Robotnik?"

A quick scan of their immediate surroundings brought no glimpse of the dark tyrant.

"Non! Non! Boding well this is not," Antoine fretted, visibly growing rather tired of the day's surreal events.

"Landsakes, we sure messed out that done deal didn't we all..." Bunnie echoed with frustration, slamming his metallic arm into a nearby palm tree, and finding out that upon said arm going right through it, that they all realised they were just as ghosts here.

And furthermore, it was then that the Freedom Fighters recalled that the last they saw of Robotnik was before Chaos wiped them out with that tidal wave, so while they were 'here', he was back home, alone.

"I could not transport the spirit of someone so foul along with us," Tikal apologised with haste. "But what I need you to see is now starting, so please watch," she concluded, the downcast ocean-like eyes matching the melancholy tone caught in her throat.

_*Play Sonic Adventure – Tikal's Theme*_

"Get out of our way!" a gruff, demanding voice boomed; that of the leader of the echidna tribe, Pochacamac.

The flames made his deep maroon fur, covered with tribal painted markings, look like coursing embers, and hid the first signs of grey that was slowly crawling its way up his fuzzy, short beard. But it was her fathers' eyes that'd terrified Tikal on that fateful night the most [and now again, watching it from the sidelines, unable to intervene in the slightest], for Pochacamac's dark blues eyes swirled like a hurricane amidst a perfect storm, almost wolf-like in their radiance of _hunger_.

In short, along with his dark wooden staff, adored with a blue crescent spiked tip, he looked like a vengeful Djinn just waiting to take first blood.

Tikal had wondered [then] just whether he'd be like this at all, despite the bulky man's man he'd always been, whether this would be happening at all if the war hadn't come to their doorstep... Had everything that had happened had not...

But that was not all, for the flames also revealed what shadows stood behind him.

They were stationed five across apiece, but only three rows back the Freedom Fighters and Tikal [now] could see; the elite warriors that weren't on the frontlines elsewhere. Each of the brutes ranging from lean [like Knuckles], to muscular, a myriad of crimson pinks and purples; and each bearing the echidna males' spiked hands speciality – coupled with strong, stern expressions on their faces.

They didn't look like pushovers that was for sure, and even Knuckles was wondering if he would've been strong enough to have been a part of them. With the flipside being that the others did not like them one bit, as where such warriors went, violence usually followed.

"Get out of _my_ way, Tikal!" Pochacamac commanded again, his dark eyes boring into his daughters' own. He'd always known she was stubborn when it came to her beliefs, and he'd loved her for that, but now was _not_ the time for such childishness the echidna chief [had] thought.

_Did she not know that time was of the essence for them all...?_

And there she was, the young teenage girl with peach-coloured fur of sixteen, standing defiantly against her father and his huddle of men, an expression of contorted emotional pain in her dulled cobalt eyes.

Tikal, the spirit, did not really know how she'd react to witnessing herself carry out the steps that'd led to the act of fate to follow [as well as the aforementioned act itself], before she'd been abruptly freed from the Master Emerald, but she figured she'd feel sorrow, yes, and anger too.

Now looking at herself, in those last few minutes, she felt the expected sorrow and anger at how things had turned out [a fate inevitable did not make it any nicer to re-watch – especially for her personal hand in it], but most of all she pitted herself.

And so as things played out as they did, as they always would've, she only wished that Knuckles and the rest of good hearted friends could succeed where she'd failed – for that hope was her only castle of strength now.

"No, father, I cannot let you pass," was Tikal's shaky [but determined], and expected response, as she outstretched her arms, as if not only to block their entry, but as if to hide something.

And she was, the Freedom Fighters noticed, doing just that, as they saw the small, cuddly aqua and yellow-tinted creatures known as Chao, who had before been standing in Tikal's way the first time she came here, Amy recalled from her Egg Carrier vision, but were now cowering with scared cries behind the shrine priestess.

For their cell-like ability as a creature was to absorb and learn skills and traits from other life-forms, adapting its shape, appearance, behaviour and personality as it did – so now the turbulent atmosphere was not only scaring them, but making them angry [though more towards the former].

It pained them all to witness such frightened innocent bystanders.

"Did you hear what I said?" Pochacamac repeated with a harsh edge, swiping his spiked staff through the void space in front of him, as if daring her to defy him, her reason for existing.

After a cutting silence, in which the spirit of Tikal and the Freedom Fighters could see that the assembled elite were beginning to grow restless, growling and cursing to just 'get on with it' already, it was then that the beginning of the end began.

"I won't obey!" was all the simple, joyless, retort, all the while her heart was threatening to burst out of her chest and her feet pull her down to earth, and then through it, all the way to its fiery core. The sheer irony of her protective arms, like a cross, as a barrier to defile the shrine and its inhabitants was only too raw a pain to the spirit now re-witnessing the events from a new viewpoint.

"We need those seven Emeralds to give us total power! It's power to the people. And... they are your people too, you know!" her father chief reasoned, his temper near to simmering over into the unknown darkness that all man could do. And so he tried one last desperate argument of reason.

"We must get that emerald! Or... do you not want us to win the war, Tikal?"

She'd thought it a low blow back then, for her father to even have the slightest bit of doubt that she had no love for her people, her race; of course she wanted them to win the war! Just... not this way.

And despite what had transpired because of her decision, the spirit of the former shrine priestess was still adamant in her faith that she'd done the right thing.

But as the tendrils of flames, the result of a pre-emptive specialised flaming arrow attack, continued to ravage and grow from its consumables [some Chao had already been slain from the arrow's], so did the silence, its increasing magnitude akin to a canyon, as the Tikal of the past undoubtedly wrestled within herself, the loyalties between her race, her family, and to her duties to the shrine and its inhabitants, Chaos Emeralds and all.

It was to be the biggest decision she'd ever made in her life, by her own mind.

But someone needed to step up to the plate, defend the shrine and all that it held dear, and stand up to her changed father. She just silently wished, hopeful that the thought wouldn't be seen as blasphemous, that it hadn't had to be her...

"Greed is our enemy!" Tikal shouted passionately, desperately, a conviction which her grandmother had once praised her for. "Once it starts, you will always want more! Please don't do this. I beg you!"

She was on the verge of tears now.

Pochacamac swivelled his head to his right side, whispering something in the ear of a purple muscular echidna just behind him [his second-hand man], before catching Tikal's gaze for what would be the final time.

Despite the escalating animosity that was growing between them, and had been for months beforehand, the petite echidna surprisingly, stared right back at him. There was a hidden conversation in their eyes: Tikal's oceanic cobalt ones pleading tenderly to her father to step down, as well as being filled with the promise of servitude her duty entailed, as Pochacamac's turbulent dark blue ones looked past the daughter who stood opposed to him and saw only victory ahead.

They'd made their choices, that was clear to everyone present [spirit and not].

"Bah! I don't listen to the words of a child," the chief spat venomously, before raising his staff in a commanded fashion and announcing what he and his men had wanted to hear since they'd set out.

"Ready, men?"

The echidnas nodded and took their battle stances, spiked fists primed; they'd deal with the demons this action would renew later on, they silently agreed to themselves.

"Charge!"

The tribesmen charged, covering the distance with haste.

"**Father!**" Tikal screamed to the heavens, just before they reached her, and then a well of pain sprang forth.

_*Play Sonic Adventure – Mystic Ruins: The Past*_

Two or three of the echidnas slammed right by her, and so fast that she couldn't have told you his name if you'd asked her, their spiked fists slicing semi-deep grooves into her still raised arms, as well as her chest not covered by her silky white tank-top, allowing Tikal's sweet plasma of life slowly seep into the open air.

And then she saw no more as her petite body was flung to the earth, only hearing the high-pitched shrills of the Chao she'd sworn to protect as the echidna elite trampled and murdered them, before the kiss of darkness swept her away.

Pochacamac had had his eyes closed the whole time, as a personal means to disassociate himself with this, in his belief, an inevitable act. But now they were open and filled with fiery determination, and so he took fast strides up to the main shrine, now a mere stone's throw away from what would be their salvation. He'd repent heavily for the sins he'd done on this night later, he thought quickly, shakily.

The chief of the Knuckles Tribe of echidnas would naturally have no idea that they would be indeed find salvation, and that he would repent for his sins.

It just wouldn't be what they'd expected.

* * *

"This is so horrible..." Amy Rose murmured on the sidelines, along with Tails, after they'd stormed the shrine, wiping her moist eyes feverishly, and only feeling the slightest twinge of annoyance at Tikal, her spirit, or whoever it was for making them all witness that!

"Barbarians...This iz inacceptable!" came Antoine's French cursing, and so much so that Bunnie had to have Sally and her pull him back to avoid venting his fury on the warriors who none of us can interfere with.

"That's a light way of putting it, Ant," Sonic flustered, smacking his fist into his palm, never liking when he couldn't step in and make a difference. It went against all he was [and wanted to be].

Rotor could only hang his head in shame, but the winner for that category would surely have gone to Knuckles, whose eyes and mouth were agape with shock. Yes, they were a warrior clan, as was he undoubtedly, but that didn't mean he could forgive or let go of the rage he currently felt at their actions, the chief, Pochacamac, Tikal's own _father_, above all.

But there was no let up on this eve's horrific events, as a scream of terror echoed from the shrines inner sanctum.

"Aaaaagh! It's a monster!" the second-in-command had hollered, his pitch reaching new height as a familiar body of water, Chaos 0, melted _up_ into a corporeal being at the top stair of the shrine.

Those slimy green pools of his were burning like a million suns, the concentration of the gaze far more piercing and burning than the continuing flames that licked and fatally caressed the shrine of all nearby life.

And the young Master Emerald lay just behind him, an eerie emerald black, and oh so enticing to the eyes of Pochacamac at this moment. But then all the _other_ emeralds bag to levitate, seemingly of their own accord.

Seemingly.

"Oh no," Sally breathed, with Antoine as her support, guessing what must've happened next.

"Noooooooo!" screamed the remaining tribesmen of the Knuckles Clan, and their chief, as Chaos absorbed all seven Chaos Emeralds into his being in a screaming flare of distorted black and white light.

... It had as well.

And Sally cursed herself for being right.

Just then, something somewhat bizarre happened, as another flash of light, this time the purest white, came into existence and dropped off the spirit of a familiar face.

_That's... me_, Knuckles thought idly, blankly, not knowing what to feel anymore as the spirit track of his former vision here tried to reason with Tikal, and failed, just as he had back then, to stop the shrine priestess from ascending those stairs.

He didn't know back then, but the Guardian had a sickening thought that the last fragment of the puzzle had, just now, flashed in his mind.

And he didn't like it one bit.

"Come," the spirit of Tikal softly commanded them, having been, naturally, rather quiet and distance throughout the last few minutes. "Follow me. You need to see this."

The Freedom Fighters followed her up the steps to the shrine where the Tikal of the past was now in a praying position, kneeling down, where before she could do naught, witnessed the end of it all.

Chaos had vanished from the shrine area for a particular purpose; it was a black and emerald tinted spark that pierced the dark on this fateful night, and which rained down a calamity of judgement down on the echidna capital, Echidnaopolis.

"No! No! _NO!!_" she'd screamed.

The echidna race fell on this day and on Tikal's birthday no less.

But even as her heart shattered and the tears began to cascade down her dirtied face; for those who had just perished, for the father who she'd lost both mentally and [now] physically, to the promise now dispersed to the cleansing winds, and just to the pure injustice of it all, Tikal still wobbled to her feet, and began to softly speak.

"The seven Emeralds are the servers. Chaos is power, enriched by the heart," she tearfully began, her voice wavering in strength as she recited her grandmother's last teaching to her. "The controller serves to unify the chaos." A thoughtful, though painful pause followed, and then a flash of memory.

"The seven Emeralds can change our thoughts into power," Tikal continued, her faithful passion slowly seeping back into her voice, though it did not lift her drowning heart. "If this Emerald controls that power... then please, you must stop him!"

The intrigued and saddened Freedom Fighters then watched the Master Emerald for its 'response', and none more than Knuckles, who'd be guarding it millennia in the future.

Nothing happened for a few moments, and to Tikal [then], it'd seemed as if the world could vanish at any given second, considering the continual primal shrills of Chaos, now a gigantic beast, she could still hear coursing all around.

Then came a humming and chorus of barely audible mantra, ringing louder and louder, not only in the Tikal of the past, but in _all_ their heads, like an ancient tide of wisdom from an even more unknown past. It was a similar sensation to what Knuckles had always felt from it, be it whole or in shards, and he could usually infer, _vaguely_, what it meant, but this time he could not...

Tikal began to slowly disperse into glowing dots of emerald and white, as another primal howl, this time of resistance, came from the skies.

And then there was a maelstrom of light.

* * *

The Freedom Fighters and Tikal's spirit reformed back in the void of light, the stream of time, as it began to flow the opposite way; the way that would take them home.

"For all these millennia," Tikal recounted in an even tone, her eyes closed. "My spirit has been sealed along with Chaos in the Master Emerald as a result of the wish I provided it."

A pause, there was no explanation needed for what had happened next, albeit thousands of years later.

"And now... Now that he is at full strength again, Chaos seeks destruction once more, in particular of races he deems unfit to be trusted with ample power and knowledge," she continued seriously. "If you do not stop him, this world will know pain and suffering like our kind did," she stated sadly, just above a whisper.

"We will do our best, Miss Tikal," Antoine announced, saluting the spirit, which brought laughs and giggles from the rest of them [bar Knuckles, whom was lost in thought]. It also made the spirit girl in question laugh a bit too, which served only to make Antoine blush slightly himself.

"Yes, thank you Tikal, for all the guidance you have provided us," Sally bowed respectfully, despite not being much of a believer in the various known lore of Mobius. "We won't fail. We have too much to lose."

"And too many nice things back home to lose too, Sal" Sonic cheerfully piped up. "Rosie's chocolate cookies!"

Eyes were rolled and laughs were had at the cobalt hedgehogs' expense, but they all knew it was a temporarily farce, as they inwardly began to psyche themselves for the final showdown to come.

"I beg for forgiveness at what I am about to say," Tikal timidly interjected. "But the Master Emerald, you see, acts rather like a mirror (from the inside), and so I have been... Uhh... I have been watching you all." _You in particular, Knuckles..._ she left unsaid.

"That is how and why I was able to come to you all in what spirit form I could muster (being so new to the form outside of the emerald's realm)," she revealed, leaving out the fact that not all of those she touched stood among them now.

"From all your actions to restore freedom to your world, I can see that you each bear good hearts. So I am sure that you can stop Chaos now."

She stopped speaking and then opened her eyes. And these cobalt eyes from a far cry from the moist and darkened ones from a thousand years ago, for they were filled with something special.

They simmered with hope at each and every one of them, even Knuckles had, by now, stopped his brooding to focus on her.

"This is all I..." A light chuckle escaped her soft lips. "That is all I _wish_ before moving onto the next world."

The Freedom Fighters further thanked Tikal for helping them, but the youngest of their kin, Tails, had one last question to ask of the pure spirit.

"Tikal, you wouldn't happen to know... just where Chaos is now, would you?"

And as the world of white began to halt, and dilute once more back into familiar Floating Island surroundings, the shrine priestess, who'd only wanted to bring peace to the world she'd known, and fulfil her duties best she can, then spoke just above a whisper, before vanishing from sight.

"Chaos lies below Station Square..."

This statement struck dread into them all, especially Amy, who now knew that she had to get to Amber and her family as fast as she could.

For everyone's time had run out.

* * *

XXXXX

**Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream**

XXXXX

* * *

And thus ends the twenty-third chapter of this story arc!

* * *

The Robotnik PoV actually wasn't part of my original summary for this whole story – but seeing Aspiring_Mythmaker's _Prelude to Anarchy_ and _Servant of Entropy_ stories, his own Sonic Adventure adaptation begin its journey, inspired me to try it out. And it was a lot harder than I thought it'd be initially actually!

Robotnik's new 'technical' assistant is someone that a certain part of the Sonic fandom should recognise, by the way. He'll show up proper sometime after 'Tides of Light...' has ended. Promise.

Took me _so_ long to get past the build-up for the 'time trip' [I didn't like the whole 'Eggman randomly got owned by Chaos in the Mystic Ruins and then somehow ended up all the way on the Floating Island' angle], but once I was past it, I really rolled with the flashback.

I actually wrote it a lot more revealing before, but I trimmed it down though [the chapter was long enough already]!

Oh, and I used the _STC_ name for 'Pachacamac', just in case you were wondering.

* * *

Just the finale parts to go now. The stage has been set. The beginning of the end and the end of the beginning starts next time, and boy is it going to get interesting.

2010 should see this story finished at last, though I don't know when the next one should be expected by. Definitely not next month at least, for it'll start with a new [kinda...] characters' PoV. :-p ;-)

I hope you enjoyed this, and the chapters so far, any comments or ratings would be nice and appreciated! ^-^

* * *

**'****The Primal Scream of Perfect Chaos' **is the next chapter.

Take care ya'll ***smiley face***


	27. The Primal Scream Of Perfect Chaos

**Disclaimer**: _I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "**Change The World**" by ARTIST Dream

* * *

**CHAPTER 24: The Primal Scream Of Perfect Chaos**

[_UNKNOWN POV_]

_Beep. Beep. BEEP._

I continued to breathe slowly, relaxingly, my body intertwined within the purple canopy bed sheets.

My dreams were filled with bright lights, signs, billboards, drinks and laughter.

There were no worries to be had when you were successful and rich.

_Beep. Beep. BEEP._

I groaned and slowly stirred to realities call, my mint green eyes flickering half open through a crimson haze.

I hadn't been back here, home, in this bed, for a while now – so I didn't want to waste a moment.

So I let the darkness soothe me away.

_Beep. Beep. BEEP._

"Ugh... What's a woman gotta do to get some sleep around h–" I groaned, tossing over, and seeing my trusty pocket-sized communicator, a sleek black and amethyst, flashing [and beeping] an emerald green on its crystallized screen.

I resisted the urge to throw one of my maroon frilled bed cushions and empty drinking glass at the wall.

But I didn't. And instead I snatched said com device up in my bare hands to see who was bothering me.

_Why am I not surprised?_ I groaned inwardly upon seeing the caller's ID.

"You better have a good one for waking this lady up, on her _day off_, sweetie," I spewed fiercely as I tumbled, rather ungracefully, out of my warm cocoon.

The wannabe mystifying female had simply lay silent during my spat (a testament that she'd at least learnt _something_ about me], before speaking her piece, as ever in that articulated, stiff tone.

She definitely needed to loosen up more.

"Sorry for the intrusion, Agent, but I have an important message for you."

I brushed my fingers through my silky, untamed faux hair as I expressed boredom, thinking that in fact it was probably something completely orthodox and lame that even a newbie could handle.

My superior (unfortunately) continued on.

"The _President_ has requested your presence at the town meeting." She paused. "I don't know why," the older woman chided lightly, causing a vein on my eyebrow to tremble. "15:00 hours at the SS Tower," she concluded proudly, as though he was about to announce world peace or something equally improbable.

Not that I wasn't now _very_ intrigued at the prospect (since I'd never directly met Station Square's President), but I was a little sceptical at what I was going to be used for from someone so high up.

Emphasis on the word 'used'.

Nevertheless, I said alright to the proposition and disconnected.

Looking at my com(s) device again, I noted that it was about quarter to eleven.

Plenty of time to spare, and grudgingly I figured that I'd have to have gotten up soon anyway.

I wasn't like most of my kind, after all.

The next few minutes I spent traipsing about my master bedroom, gathering up my usual attire.

And whilst it was a nice sized master bedroom for an apartment, it was still rather small (by my tastes), though. The walls were blood red, the carpet a creamy white, and the wood work was of polished cherry wood. Due to my job the place had become nothing but a pit stop, sadly to say.

But then I only had it because of my job, I thought gratefully, my mind wandering back in time to my life before that, just for a second.

Only a single second...

I then walked bare as the day as I was born into the hot shower, big enough for at least three people, and lathered myself down, and really taking my time with it too.

I had unlimited hot water up in this special apartment block, so I was sure gonna take advantage of it!

A dispersion of mist preceded my exit, coating the nearby three-way mirror with silvery moisture.

I could just about see myself in it.

My usual silky faux hair was dribbling, even as it clung to my neck, but my mint hues and peachy skin were wide awake now, soft and smooth.

After drying myself down, I slipped myself into my more comfortable, professional attire (sorry silk gown), which ended (as always), with the protective coating that my fingertip fitting white gloves bestowed upon me.

I was now kitted out and rearing to go (out).

Well, almost. I still had a woman's necessities slap on after all!

So I did that, highlighting my mint hues with pink blush, and un-clumping my hair with one of many hairbrushes.

I was doing this, just minding my own damn business, when I saw it.

A fleeting flicker of crimson shied away just out of the corner of my eyes.

"What the heck..." I uttered mildly uneasily as I whirled around, only to be met with nothing.

_Huh. I didn't have any more than a small cup of r__osé __before slipping into bed in last night..._ I wondered absentmindedly as I finished pluming up my silky white hair.

Nothing else happened for the remainder of the time I spent left in my room, so I shrugged it off as simply a belated hangover symptom.

Despite being a woman I could still hold my own exceptionally well, even over the most cocky of the male species, but maybe I _had_ simply had just one too many the night past.

But, as I left to check out my next wanted shiny assets downtown, before meeting with my superior, I wondered if I was being warned, or reminded of days of past.

Though I could not fathom as to who would bother, or more importantly, why.

I didn't know it then, but this was the beginning of the day that would change my life forever.

* * *

The jewellers in the central sector of the city had been, to be mild, a let-down.

The alexandrite necklace I'd ordered in advance of my monthly salary, ten carats worth, _still_ hadn't arrived.

The timid, bordering pathetic excuse of a male cashier had given me some drivel that they feared the cargo shipment it'd been on had been attacked by thieves up in the frigid north.

_Lousily barbarians_, I'd thought, _what need would _they_ have of such beauty?_

And to add to that, the amethysts on display, a personal favourite, had been all been but the size of a baby's first tooth.

Utterly worthless.

Now, after winging it in the last few remaining minutes (the jeweller manager hadn't been of any additional help, despite my threats of having them shut down), I was inside the _SS Tower_, riding the elevator up to the sky restaurant at its apex with my regimental partner, Topaz.

We didn't speak much. Me and her had a 'she tells me to do that and report back when it is done' kind of relationship, but now, from the way the old lady was fidgeting within her navy blue scouts uniform (totally out of style), it looked as though I was about to either get a lecture or comforting words. Dare I dread, maybe both.

"Rouge, it's the President who needs you for something here, so be polite," she remanded, carefully, nicely, staring me dead in the eye as she did so.

You didn't need to be a brain buster to know what the underlying message was:

'Don't screw it up'

"Yeah, I know," I declared calmly, waving the old lady's woes away.

_That's what concerns me_, I thought, hiding my frown of despondent anger from her.

A childish chime from above indicated that we were here, so we both stepped out, I in particular, into the unknown.

* * *

The Station Square Tower [yes, my eyes rolled at the sheer blandness of it too] stood just shy of 200 metres [or so Topaz had just told me], making the majority of buildings in the city look like mere ants in comparison. It was champagne white and cut into dozens of crystal clear royal blue-tinted windows, which spiralled around the building like budding roots, leading up to the 360° observation deck whose clear sphere resembled a flower just about to bloom.

It also, naturally, housed a five star restaurant. And one that I hadn't been to as of yet.

The tabletops were an oaky brownish-grey, as were the accompanying chairs, and the open kitchen worktops were sleek silver. All were adored with lavish and rigidly placed culinary, and much in the way of green foliage and flowers, naturally.

And though I felt they had no need for them here, way up high and open to [clearer] skies than the city below, the tri-fitted spheres of lights were all on.

They were set to a high intensity too, for they made my exposed skin prickle uncomfortably.

But the air was awash with the finest of food from all over the world [sadly I was only offered a small glass of expensive bubbly, despite my credentials]. This was not that surprising considering the greater whole of human economy operated and ran through this city.

In short, the whole place was posh [I'd give it 4 out of 5]. Just my kind of place [bar the near-sizzling lights that is].

When Topaz and I entered this enclosed canopy of skylight, we were checked over [always a necessary bore – but a bore nevertheless], before being lead over to the President's table.

And its thirty odd chairs were all filled.

_Oh boy_, I thought wearily as one of the male waiters obediently pulled out my chair at the opposite end of the President; Topaz also. _Don't say I have to sit and listen through the remainder of this city budget meeting..._

Politics and city expenses were for the men and ladies in suits to sort out – all I cared about was my hard earned cash, jewels and accommodation!

Needless to say, I ended up listening to the dreary jabbering. Topaz looked hooked, so I left her in la-la land and let my eyes wander, looking for _anything_ of interest.

There were three guards planted at the ivory clad door, wearing the bland, greyish blue calibre that symbolised G.U.N. [to me at least]. Each of them bore a stiff position, their limbs lax at their sides, though primed to act given a second's notice I was adamantly sure.

I knew also that they had more colourful, mildly more tasteful tan, black and green attire; the kind that was best equipped for camouflage and such stealth missions.

I bet they were as bored as I was too.

_Boy I wish I was on a mission now_, _even if this is one of my few days off for awhile._ I irritably began thinking. And as I drew myself back to the table of jabbering, I realised that the soldier plants were probably pondering the same thing.

"We should increase taxes by five per cent!" one said.

"No, it should be ten per cent!" another croaked.

What about the final budget to spend on public services? I still need to know what it is!" came another voice.

Race relations and immigration, the economy and crime were also blundered amongst them.

And in grand detail.

I wanted to fly into the ceiling if it'd get me of here, in all honesty. Or maybe [as wrong as I knew it was] a sudden impulsive hope filled me, the ceiling and lights could suddenly come crashing down on them.

"Miss... Rouge?" uttered a quiet, but articulate voice from my side, just out of sight. "Would you like any of the wines?"

I turned and was met with a brunette waitress. She must have been reading my name off the silly little trinket we were forced to put on at the door [for security matters, apparently].

I didn't really care now. Finally I had something to ferry me away from all this.

"I'll have a glass of your finest red–" I ordered eagerly, licking my rosy lips.

"She means that she will be fine with a glass of water," Topaz _rudely_ interjected. "She has a meeting with _the President_ in a few minutes," the old lady glared my way as she finished speaking with posh articulate.

The waitress didn't even flaunter, instead nodding her sweet little head and scarpering off to the kitchen to get me the one pick-me-up that wouldn't work...

I growled at my 'partner in crime', naturally _pissed off_, but she merely smirked and returned her ailing eyes to the political babble around us.

_Oh, what I'd like more than anything right now is to wipe that smirk right off your pasty face... _I thought devilishly.

I probably would have been that close to doing so as well, but then something amazing happened.

Everyone, bar me and Topaz, one by one, left and scurried off back to their fancy estates!

"_Finally_", I whispered, "Now I can find out why I'm here," I breathed merrily, as me and Topaz ascended to the other side of the table where Station Square's President awaited.

I was just taking in the gait of the brown-haired, blue-eyed, peach-skinned man, whose demeanour only grew more powerful, yet calming, as we approached, when I heard something, causing me to stop in mid step.

My ears, as you must have guessed, were far more sensitive [a tamer word for _better_ in my book] than those of humans, and even a great range of Mobian species, so when I heard this sound, I was a little worried.

"Rouge, what's the hold-up –" Topaz hollered, hearing me behind her no more, before turning, letting a small glimmer of realisation fill up her powdery blue eyes.

"Hey, what's wrong?" she fretted, her tone coming down just an inch from its usual high and mighty pedestal. Despite having no visual clarity, she and the rest of agents had learned long ago to trust my animalistic instincts when it comes to sensing danger.

What I had heard [and still continued to, off and on] was a loud flurry of water from below.

Now the worrisome part about this was that I'd _never_ heard the gushing of water in the city's sewers before [something I guess I'd never thought about till this second, but something I'd put down to natural filtering – otherwise I'd go mad with the things I'd be able to hear, wouldn't I?], and now I could, and it certainly was rather loud [at least to me] than a few hundred or so flushing's should create [I assumed].

Though there was no telltale signs yet; none of that floor shaking, glass humming and teeth chattering every disaster film had prior to said disaster, so I waved it off.

"Nothing sweetie, I was just adjusting to that water you shoved my way," I said as politely as I could muster. "I guess it 'picked me up' after all." And it had, truth be told [or half-truth, as the case was here].

I decided to keep an ear out (_my, that was lame_, I thought quickly), just in case, however.

Now, up close and seated in-between us both, the President exhumed that continual calm, but his elongated face didn't seem to betray any particular sense of agitation or urgency.

But that soon melted away, now that his trusted company had all left, so the President [whose name I hadn't the foggiest] looked more on edge, as though he had bad news to share.

It got me both excited [and worried] for whatever proposition he had need of me for.

"Ah, Miss Rouge," he said gratefully, extending a hand, which I shook. "I've heard a lot about you."

_... And know next to nothing about _you_, sir_, was the thought that almost trickled off my tongue.

"Thank you, Mr President," I said instead, very politely, before folding my arms and getting right to business.

"Now, what services do you require of me, and so urgently?" I pried smoothly.

He let out a soft laughter [or was it a nervous cough?].

"My, you're not one to

"I love my work, and money, so of course I'm eager to get started. Especially something sanctioned by one as important as yourself, sir" I said matter of factly, as I idly checked out my glove-covered fingernails.

"I'm sorry Mr President, sir, for my colleagues' behaviour," Topaz fretted quickly, whilst I smiled.

Oh, how I loved making the old lady squirm.

"It is no bother, Agent Topaz," he chided happily. "I've always liked those with a bit of gumption!"

_Yeah, Topaz, learn to get some of... that_, I relayed in my smirk back to her. She offered no response and instead let the President continue on.

"Agent Rouge," he began affirmably. "What I am about to derive to you may come as a bit of a shock, but it is of the _utmost importance_ that it is carried out, do you understand me?"

"Yes, sir," I agreed, "but what is it you want me to do?" I almost spat, impatience threatening to spill out of my throat.

"I need you to–"

I never got to hear him debrief the mission to me, as everything in the room began to vibrate and crash.

And then it came.

* * *

[_NARRATOR'S POV_]

**STATION SQUARE / 16: 13 PM**

Time does not rest.

The weekend had come to an end, and completely unaware of the efforts a group of Mobians had gone through to keep it so, life in the city returned to normalcy.

No more was there the jazzed up frenzy that accompanied friends, singletons, wives, husbands and children going out and having a good time – whatever the case may be – for that had been replaced by the frenzy that came with the end of work [and school] day rush. Anyone in any major city would tell you the same; traffic jams, lots of walking parents and children, and delayed trains all in the same vicinity equalled manic times, whether the skies were clear and cheery blue or not [as they were today].

But, needless to say, as it had been five days prior, when the Freedom Fighters had made their brave first appearance in the city, this day was going to be the hardest in Station Squares history.

Now, time does not rest, that is true, but regardless of this irrefutable fact there is more to that tale.

For like a ripple in a river causes spreading vibrations, ones that could, in time, alter the rivers flow, and even the quantity of life in it, like the flap of a butterfly could lead to tiny changes in the atmosphere later on, resulting in a tornado or even stopping one from occurring altogether.

And the endgame of this tale was to be no different.

It started with a slim ripple, akin to the tiniest pebble imaginable skirting its blue-green surface, down in the sewers of Station Square. This grey stone-cold metropolis of tunnels underneath another metropolis had been constructed during the year 2500, providing much needed sanitary and health to the people living above.

In an ironic, cruel twist of fate, it would now give form to what would become the doom of many.

A ripple of water, a combination of the creatures' own unlimited excess and the concoction down below, then swelled up and rolled into a coil, like that of a snake, before pushing its way along every convincible wall, and into every crevice through said walls.

The creature had only one intent in its pink, pulsing brain: vengeance.

And then the waves ascended; violently spurting out of every manhole cover across the city, causing screams of confusion and raw panic to spread like wildfire as cars crashed into cars, and as people ran, knocked down, and swatted each other out of the way.

Mere survival being their only active instinct – but it would not help everyone, at least for the couple hundred who died within the first minute of the calamity, mainly through the waters tearing large-scale cracks in the roads.

And as women and men ran, shielding their loved ones, whatever the case may be, from the spreading bays of water, which acted more like tendrils and in turn slowed the unfortunate caught up in it considerably, then the next and final passing of Chaos' judgement rained down on them.

Literally.

The elevating bellow accompanying the gigantic waves, now sweeping all over the city, became a shrilling scream as multiple buildings ruptured apart in a shower of steel, mortar, glass and human rag dolls.

The Station Square Tower structure blossomed on this day, from a bubble, into the physical form of the tsunami, a long serpentine creature that coursed with blue-green light, its liquid skin rippling like the tails of thousands of writhing snakes, and with ravenous teeth the size of elephants. And if that wasn't nightmare fuel enough for those lucky enough to have scrawled their way to higher ground and were now watching the stone-cold inducing proceedings, but then the shrilling noise became something truly primal – a tone that could chill any human or mobian to the core – which then led to the squelching of an giant eye opening on Chaos' large elongated head.

This golden slit lingered idly over the torrent of devastation in his wake.

It was just the start of Chaos' judgement to come, after all.

And everyone left who had the courage to stare into the eye of the beast that fateful day, that fateful hour and second, knew it.

For whilst time did not rest, nor was it always kind to the living.

* * *

**STATION SQUARE RUINS / 16: 28 PM**

The metropolis that had been at the centre of all non-Robotnik trade routes was now in ruins; the buildings that remained standing were now crumpled in on themselves [now half, or less, their original size], and looked nothing more than mere splinters with coursing flumes interjecting out of them.

The skies had also took on a ghostly look, the true blue skies now covered with swirling charcoal grey cloud masses, as though the heavens themselves were angry [or mourning] at the transpiring event.

There was no symphony of angels, nor laughter of devils either, all the sounds that seemingly remained in the world were the raging waters, the slithering shrills that came from the towering Chaos, and of course the very tiny, almost insignificant in its inaudibility, breathing of those still alive, whatever their condition may be. Other than that there was just silence.

And finally there was the smell; gone was the myriad of fresh and polluted air and in its place was a wavering putrid smell, slightly salty, slightly bitter, and brought on most, unsurprisingly, with the carousel of bopping figures that now traversed the newly formed bays and out and into nearby rivers.

And there was only [unspoken] word that came to the minds of our heroes, the Freedom Fighters, and Tikal, who with a flurry of flight and train antics had reached the city just six minutes after Chaos began his devastation., and were now transversing one of the newly made bays: 'Oh, my, god...', or '**Sacré bleu!' in Antoine's case.**

"So this is what we're up against... What we failed to stop," Sally shivered, NICOLE limp in the hand against her side. Antoine, who had been trailing alongside her, then softly clenched her hand in reassurance.

The Princess of Acorn turned, gave him a small smile and promptly let go of his grasp, continuing onward.

"How could anyone survive this?" Amy breathed anxiously, her nerves now on tether hooks for her city friends, as they preserved over the accumulating rubble. The salty, deathly abundant air was certainly not helping that matter either [though, thankfully, they had yet to see the carousel of death].

"It's okay Amy girl," Bunnie reassured her with the tight squeeze of her hand. "They'll be okay."

"Maybe," the hot-pink hedgehog reluctantly agreed, for the Worthington's lived pretty high up in their block of flats. "But what about everyone else in the city?" she murmured.

The southern woman had no answer to that and so kept, naturally, silent on the matter, instead going over to grasp Tails' other hand, the other being interlocked with Sally's.

The crashing of waves and the rumble of fragile rubble making its final passage into the treacherous waters was all that lingered for the next few minutes, as the gravity of the situation began to nestle even more so in all their hearts.

"So... what are we going to do now?" Rotor piped up, his black pools scouring the still-raging waters. For he knew that due to his natural abilities, that he'd be the prime candidate to help the survivors – if there were any.

The family of Freedom Fighters, of many an orphan, knew that saving lives was paramount, as well as defeating Chaos for good and so that is what they agreed on.

But despite this march of defiance, of hope, Tails [and Tikal ever more] had grave eyes. One had never really seen the death of a living being, whereas the other had seen the annihilation of her race, so it was naturally rather hard for either of them to brighten up their spirits.

And the Guardian, whose very duty was to guard the Master Emerald, at any cost, had also never seen such collateral on this scale. Only the [near] fully powered Death Egg could've come close to unleashing such hell he imagined.

But with no solution to dealing with Chaos himself, instead he did the only he felt he could right then.

He prayed for those that'd pasted on.

On the other end of that spectrum, Knuckles, the man of faith per say, was the man of action, in this case, one true blue hedgehog, who had been simply by slouching along with them.

He hated the fact that they could do nothing but let this go on, for all the power they had.

And his prickly demeanour, unusual bout of silence and the scowl etched into his face didn't go unnoticed by Sally either. And she'd let it go on for long enough.

"Sonic," she stated seriously. He stopped and stared at her with an ounce of impatience. "We need to talk."

"What is it Sal, can't you see it's not exactly the time for chitchat?" was the hedgehog's prickled retort.

The Princess bit her tongue on the flaring retorts she now felt compelled to slap into the difficult sod and decided to just get it over with.

"I'm aware of how that may be what this appears to you," she said evenly, trying to balance her tone between concern and the sternness all leaders needed to utilise, from time to time, to succeed.

Sonic hadn't started tapping his foot, something that irritated the _hell_ out of her, yet, so it looked like she was holding up well, she thought. "But I am actually looking out for the best interests of my team, and whether you believe it or not, you as well," the Princess concluded smoothly, taking careful consideration to stay where she was and not invade the hedgehog's space as she did so.

Sonic simply scoffed with his arms crossed over. He simply felt that she was showing off her superiority in front of them all again, and in particular how he was beneath her.

Sally sighed and tried again. "Do you remember what I told you and Tails about the first day we met?" she then asked rather sudden, her gaze wavering to a friendlier, compassionate one.

_Huh. Why is that important now_, he thought quickly, and in that rush – akin to one rushing about to find that one thing and then tripping over said thing in that hurry – he found that he _did_ remember what she'd told them.

It'd been on the very same day they'd all met back in the Great Forest, after which they'd 'adopted' Tails and him into the fold that was Knothole Village.

Not that they'd gone in through the front, via the Great Oak slide, mind you. Instead the pair had been hurried through a back [slide] entrance, one that lead straight to their [at the time] small, nearly moderate-sized base of operations. There they'd undergone vigorous testing to ensure they weren't spies or the like, and post that, it was then Sally had briefed them in on what they and Knothole were about.

Sally Acorn, being a leader, especially one leading a resistance group against one as resourceful and merciless as Robotnik, also filled them in on the realities that it did [or eventually would] bring.

"You told us we'd be forced to make difficult decisions, such as choosing between saving one, many... or none at all," Sonic recalled out loud, his lips frowning as the last words rolled out of them.

"And you also told us that we may be forced to kill another living being in order to save another or many," Tails said boldly, a sprinkle of pride in his execution.

"Good. I'm glad you've kept that with you," she commended with a small smile. _I know how scary it is to acknowledge, but it's the truth_, she added in thought. "And what did I _specifically_ say?" she pressed, reasonably impressed at the hedgehog's recall skills when the ball came down to it.

"To put any anger you have aside, or it'll consume and be the end of you?" Sonic sighed, locking eyes with Sally.

"Si, si, the right thing to do that is," Antoine interjected, earning nods of approval from Bunnie, Amy and Rotor.

The cobalt blue hedgehog breathed in and out, and then stopped.

"I'm sorry, Sal, but I can't..." he uttered painfully, the well of anger inside set to breaking point. And it was then that the hedgehog in question realised that it was the same kind of rage that he'd experienced upon learning of his actions as Super Sonic many months prior.

And also on the day he'd first meet Robotnik–

_Stop it._ Sonic hissed, willing his subconscious and the wreaths of memories, horrible memories this time, that it liked to bestow away. _I'm not that reckless anymore. I'm not..._

"No more," the cobalt blue hedgehog stated in regards to it all, raising his lowered head to scour over the bays ahead. "I'll make sure no one else dies today!" he roared before curling up into a sphere and spin-dashing ahead, over the floating rubble, and right into the centre of the fallen metropolis.

It was where they'd been heading, with the chaos readings from both Rotor and Tails, and Tikal's link to Chaos, anyway, but Sonic's reckless streak had almost cost them all before.

So with a grunt of irritation, Sally waved the remaining gang to follow her lead, all the while hoping that this time they'd have no Super Sonic to worry about on top of Chaos.

Because that would truly be a _nightmare_.

* * *

[ROUGE'S_ POV_]

**STATION SQUARE RUINS / 16: 13 PM**

First had come the vibrations, and then the cracking of glass, which splintered like a spiders web before falling apart. The ceiling and floor had also begun to groan in unison, and which sounded extra ghoulish combined with the growing screams from down below us, from the 'public' restaurant.

The President had been high-tailed out of there faster than a cat let loose in a milk market, probably on some helicopter if the sudden radio blitz swamping my ears was of any indication, which had left just me, Topaz and–

"It's a huge tidal wave!"

And few of the SS Tower's 'charming' residents...

It'd been my former ditz of a waitress who'd shrilled, pointing her stubby long fingers out at said wave from out of the now open-top floor of the Station Square Tower.

_You don't say, Sherlock_, I'd quipped, rolling my eyes, before turning to Topaz, whose eyes had looked grave, not to mention stiff as stone, as they'd washed over the city. Or to be precise, over what was now left of it.

I can't say I'd blamed her either. It did look _really bad_. Such sudden catastrophes always delivered on that fact.

"Topaz," I'd stated briskly. "We need to get out of here," I'd affirmed, as I'd felt and heard everything going to heck around us.

I'd received no reply.

"Are you even listening to me?" I'd spat with frustration, whirling around. My 'old lady' had just been gazing blankly over at the ocean of rubble that Station Square had just been reduced to, using one stiff hand for support on what remained of the eastern top floor wall.

"Dammit," I'd cursed, sensing our inevitable destruction if we dallied any longer. "Topaz, get a grip!"

I'd got nothing, again. And was reminded briefly of the bitter times I'd put up with when I was younger.

_Why now, of all times, did you have to get shell-shocked Topaz_, I'd moaned inwardly, before shaking my head.

I sure as hell wasn't going to meet my maker like this – not at the hand of anyone else, so I'd done the only thing I felt I could – I'd slapped Topaz, my superior comrade, across her right cheek.

My facial muscles had tensed, just for a moment. But I hadn't got the flared response I'd expected [one of the few seemingly constants in my life], only muted silence.

Then she'd broken it, turning her head towards me.

"Rouge... Thanks," she'd murmured, a small genuine smile leaking out.

I'd almost fell backwards at the notion, another unexpected one, but of course, this graceful woman did not.

"Umm, no problem," I'd replied back slowly, unsure on how to take this. The woman had always been on my case ever since I joined G.U.N. [due to prejudice perhaps, I'd figured], so where was the ice queen now?

"No really. I needed that," she'd admitted, and not through gritting teeth either. I'd stared at her curiously, silently asking her [I suppose] to continue.

She'd then given a small hoarse laugh. "I know what you're thinking," Topaz had muttered at me, mildly amused, which in turn had caused me to raise a curious eyebrow. ""We've been in big gun battles and seen tons of civilians caught in the crossfire before, so why are you getting all shell-shocked on me now, right?""

Boy, she was good. But I'd only given a small scrunched up smile and nod in earnest. Topaz didn't deserve anymore than that.

"But this...," she'd breathed with remorse. "This is another thing altogether. We don't even have the _slightest_ inkling of what has happened, how or why. We had no warning at all!" she'd hollered. I'd kind of hoped at that moment that I wouldn't have to slap her again, although part of me had enjoyed it...

Instead, I'd decided it was high time I reminded the 'old lady' of her duties, with a hand on my hip.

"Look, yes I'm as confused and angry at the amount of crap that has just hit as you are, but this is precisely what people like us, the strong and skilled, are especially needed for, to help those who _can't_ help themselves," I'd conveyed quite honestly [for someone in my line of work], because yes, I [did] feel those things, but I'd not allowed them to control me. I couldn't. Otherwise I'd lose my edge.

I'd seen her nod during my monologue, slowly at first, and then with a renewed rigidness as her stubborn, fighting spirit brightened up her dulled eyes.

"We can't _do_ anything until we're off this falling nest, agreed?" I'd instructed, wanting to get out of this place as soon as possible, even if it did involve me getting my hands dirty [or in this case, wet].

Anything that involved more action and less talking in my book!

Topaz and I had just begun a quick sweep of our floor level for any remaining persons when the ominous noises increased tenfold in their groaning.

Now it didn't matter whether you were human or mobian, dare say even deaf, for you simply couldn't _not_ hear and feel the building crumbling piece by piece, not caring who it entombed in the process.

We were now back whence we'd started, where I'd been about to be given a new mission [on my day-off no less] by the President himself, but was now simply a great faceless window into the watery void below.

"Grab my hand, Topaz," I'd insisted quickly, as a method of escape formulated on instinct within the recesses of my mind.

"Okay," the woman had said, with only an ounce of reluctance now [she'd obviously finally woken up and seen the bigger scope here], before grasping my left hand.

Using my bat instincts, I'd then sensed the path of the wind and hastily spread out my velvet-like wings, holstering Topaz up into my arms, an action that neither of us really wanted to have done, but needed to.

A gust of chilling wind flowed over us as I'd stepped closer to the glassless edge, with only large bays of water and rubble below to welcome us. And I'd tensed the muscles in my legs, and wings, in order to prepare myself for flight [something more important than ever, now I had a passenger on board] when I'd sensed interruption number two behind us.

"Now what is it?" I'd groaned, tired of these timely interruptions. Time which would cost lives, namely ours at this rate.

I shouldn't have been surprised to see who it was, but I had been. It was our waitress from before, and she had rivers of tears streaming down the mass of brunette plastered to her pretty face. She also looked a bit out of breath. What had she been doing, running up and down the stairs? I'd wondered.

The mousy waitress hadn't even asked how I'd known she was there, so her basic brain functions were presumably still whirring away. She stepped forward until she was just a foot or two ahead of us, the heel of my right boot still on the edges border.

"Hey!" she'd shouted excitedly. "You guys are still here. Good good!" the brunette had wheezed. And I'd wondered how someone so ditzy had gotten a job here momentarily, but then curiosity had tickled me and Topaz both.

"Yes, yes we are," Topaz spoke softly, with control. "Although we were just going to take our leave; we can't stay here any longer."

"Yeah we were, _sweetie_, but tell me this, why are _you_ still here?" I'd confronted the mousy woman mildly.

In that moment Topaz had whispered to me that her name was _Katherine_

"Huh? How did you know?" I'd whispered back in surprise. "Is she a relative of yours or something, or do I need not enquire any further?"

Topaz grunted, and elaborated only with a pointing finger. It'd ended right at the top of the waitresses' black and white uniform, on a sleek silver nametag.

I probably should've noticed, but at the time I hadn't really cared for her. And who really does get personally involved and bicker with a waiter or waitress at a restaurant [for a reason other than companionship of some kind]? Personal matters were more Topaz's department, not mine.

I was just a hired asset. [Ha].

"Oh, well after I saw what was going on outside I ran into the kitchens to get my cell from the employees locker," she'd spoke vivaciously. Katherine's tone had taken a sombre turn from that point forth. "To ring up my father and stuff, ya know?"

"Perfectly understandable," Topaz had agreed. I just shrugged.

"He lives on the outskirts of the city so I imagined he'd be fine, but then we don't know where all these waves came from yet, do we?" the waitress had continued.

"No, our intelligence hasn't cracked this disaster yet," Topaz had said, as though it would comfort the worried girl.

What rubbish.

"You really should've just left when everyone else did," I'd interjected, feeling that it'd been left to me to divulge the cold hard truth.

"Rouge!" my comrade had scowled expectedly at me.

And then it'd happened in a blur, the rumbling beneath us reached a fevered pitch as all the floors swiftly fell one by one, piece by piece.

I'd taken an instinctive step backward, and Katherine had taken two of the same kind of instinct forward, staring at us with pleading eyes.

We all simply wanted to survive.

"I..." I'd said with a sombre tone, casting my eyes away from her. "I'm sorry, but I can't take you."

Another step backward and two steps forward.

"Forgive me!" I'd screamed with anguish.

Then I'd taken flight. Though the chilly wind had been nothing akin to the guilt that'd now taken root in my heart – like a scar that would never permanently go away – aided no less by the protests in my ears, one near, one far away [and getting quieter as the seconds rolled on by].

Topaz and I had sailed along in silence after that.

But it hadn't lasted long, for a resounding explosion of what sounded like water had come from behind us, so I'd momentarily turned our course around. And as a price for our curiosity we'd then witnessed a horrifying, unexpected development.

A cocoon of dark blue-green water from nowhere in particular had then swiftly enveloped the SS Tower, which'd only remained standing because of its above average supporting walls [I saw the insides as having been rendered akin to sucking down a glass of milkshake through a straw, gone without a trace]. And from this abnormality had come a monstrous being, one with rippling, glowing skin and teeth like one couldn't imagine.

"What the hell is that?" Topaz had whispered to me, the silent treatment on the backpedal for the moment.

I'd said nothing, and opted to answer in my actions. So I'd flown as far away from the thing as possible.

Note, that it takes a lot unnerve a woman like me like this – pure chills – but this not only took the cake, but ran with it. It was terrifying!

We'd had no choice [again] but to hear its screaming moments later, whether it was proclaiming victory over us 'lesser beings' I couldn't tell. It's not like the possibility that there were creatures of _living water_ out in the world had ever come to mind before now, why would it have done?

Tense silence had then swept us up in its ugly embrace thereafter, leading us to _now_.

I knew she hated me for leaving Katherine, an innocent, behind, but I hadn't lied. I couldn't have carried them both. We'd have just plummeted into the waters like a cannon ball if I had, and then we'd all be grievously hurt [or worse] by the water beast that'd laid ruin to our city in about ten minutes.

Life was just cruel this way. It didn't matter whether you were a 'good' person or a 'bad' one. Things like this happened, and choices like this are made as such. That was just the way it was.

Specks of movement down on the rumble covering what used to the central sector [if the large clock face leering out of the water was of any indication] caught my attention, and upon closer inspection I recognised the blue-green force to be that of G.U.N. origin, their rescue ops, complete with four or five sleek black helicopters.

I'd never been so happy to see them, other living beings in general, in all my life.

Now Topaz and I could concentrate on rescuing the survivors of this nightmare flood, and when we abruptly separated upon gracing solid earth again [or being part of an old road, the closest we could get to that at the minute], that is exactly what we women did.

Bobbles of heads and cries were drifting near us our bay now, that of those small clusters that had sought higher ground and escaped relatively unscathed [or those that had just been fortunate and survived the brunt of impact].

Admittedly, I hadn't done much rescue work in the past, but I'd had the basic medical training prior to joining G.U.N. officially, so I knew I could help fetch people out and kept them good until the real professionals could tend to their individual needs.

Topaz was already off somewhere, presumably tending the rescued in some way or maybe trying to get some Intel on _that_, so now that I was free of luggage again, and without question or order at my ankles, I then dived on in and was met with a cold blanket of darkness.

* * *

[_NARRATOR'S POV_]

**STATION SQUARE RUINS / CENTRAL BAY / 16: 46 PM**

"There he is, Sally girl," Bunnie pointed out, wiping away the small sheen of sweat along her forehead, a result of all the rumble clambering they'd had to endure to avoid taking a potentially fatal swim.

"Phew," Sally breathed, all the excursions they'd been forced to do finally catching up with her, and from what she could tell, everyone else as well. "Well at least he didn't go and attack head on like a fool."

The leader of the Freedom Fighters treaded this line of thought out carefully, firstly not wanting the cobalt blue teen to get wind of the idea, and secondly because looking at their enemy, Chaos who still lingered where an exceptionally tall structure had lavished the skies, whirled up a concoction of feelings within. And there were borders of anger that she dared not cross.

The all guns blazing approach had failed them greatly in the past; first in the Mystic Ruins, on the Egg Carrier, and then again on the Floating Island just an hour or so before. No... This time they _had_ to come up with a clear-cut plan.

And Princess Sally, daughter to the royal line of Acorn, had a gut feeling that Tikal might offer some valuable clues as to defeating [or at least weakening] him.

The group had walked briskly on forth to the rumble where Sonic the hedgehog stood silently on, the rooftop of a former pint-sized skyscraper building, when a warm, sweet voice spoke up.

"Sally, I should've said something earlier but I–" Amy Rose uttered tenderly, grabbing the auburn haired woman's right hand, before Sally then waved her off. The reasoning for this conversation was clear as day on the young girl's face, whose green eyes were flickering wildly with anxiety.

"Go to them Amy, they may need your help," Sally insisted, giving the younger girl a quick hug before thoughtfully shooing her off.

"R-right," the lovable rose spoke up faithfully before running briskly away, heading south from the central bay, leaving Sally to explain their interlude to the others, now with one Sonic the hedgehog to their ranks.

Though as the reformed gang waved their friend off, Sally silently prayed to the source that it was simply fear for her friends that had claimed Amy, and not the beginnings of a slip into shell-shock. Goodness knows that Tails and she were experiencing, right now, things that no one their age should.

_Though, someone would say the same applied to us all_, murmured the rational part of her. _But still... we're older, so we can handle it better_, the Acorn Princess reasoned. Either way, it was just _wrong_, but still an inevitability in their cause.

Sally had just reached the platform where everyone else was waiting, presumably wanting to 'break the ice' so to speak together and not alone, when a bellow of thunder erupted from up ahead. The flailing form that was Perfect Chaos had opened up his gaping mouth, and then the sky was lit up in a fierce aurora of violet, blue, red and orange as a beam of energy let loose and decimated a nearby building.

Whether it was invitation of a challenge no one could tell, but it prompted something alright.

"I've had enough. Just who do you think you are anyway?" Sonic growled, before bursting forward in a cocoon of light blue light.

... Only to be stopped in his tracks by the flutter of another familiar light that was now in his path.

*_Play Sonic Adventure – Tikal's Theme_*

"Sonic, wait!" Tikal shouted frantically, a momentary flicker of white light preceding her shift from a ball of light into her spiritual, echidna form. Her expression looked halfway between sombre and thoughtful relief as she turned to gaze at the rampaging Perfect Chaos just ahead.

"My heart has always been in the Master Emerald along with Chaos'," the former shrine priestess said stated. "Now he's filled with anger and sadness. And if it goes on," she paused, "he'll eventually destroy the world, like he tried to before!"

Tikal's face had now become a mask of painful sorrow, which was only further emphasised in the declared tone she spoke in next. "He must be sealed in the Master Emerald, NOW!"

"How can that help?" Sonic spoke up in spite of himself; this sudden mild act of concern for one who'd caused so much devastation catching even himself a little off guard. So much so, that he paused whilst he allowed his mind to drink in this new feeling, to define it, before speaking again, the hedgehog's tone more sagely now. "It won't change how he feels inside, will it? His heart will still remain in turmoil and his anger just won't vanish! He'll just be trapped forever!"

The peach coloured girl looked shocked for a second, realising the personal consequences for what such a thing would do to Chaos, and on her order no less, again. It would just create a cycle that wouldn't break.

So Tikal slowly sunk and hugged her knees, and closed her eyes, now at a loss of what to do. Either way, it looked as though she'd either help destroy or entrap her oldest friend. Her very own Catch-22.

It was then that our cobalt blue hero realised what feeling had sprouted within him: pity. He felt sorry for the creature and all the pain that it'd had to bear all those millennia ago, even if the ruins of the city in the present was an aching remainder of his other feelings; rage, sorrow, and guilt. Heroes were supposed to save people, but today they'd been too late.

Furthermore, Tikal's words had hauntingly reminded him of what may have happened to him had the others [not to mention Ebony and her friend Pyjamas] not sealed away Super Sonic. So whilst their situations looked to be as far away as you could get, maybe, just maybe, they both had some common ground after all.

They both didn't want to feel trapped, physically and mentally, ever again.

And jutting him out of this inspiring thought was the bleak, wavering response of the millennia's old spirit, the one called Tikal, to his earlier statement.

"What choice do we have?"

* * *

"So what are we to be doing now?" Antoine spoke up, whilst Sonic and Tikal had their own little conversation. "I don't want to keep standing about like a foeel!"

"Twan', honey, I keep tellin' ya it's 'fool'," Bunnie teasingly corrected.

"Fine, fine," the coyote muttered back. "'Fooolll'" he drawled out in pronunciation, before scoffing. "Iz does not be having the same ring to it..."

Bunnie shook her head in frustration, but of the half-amused kind.

"Hey guys," cried Rotor, who'd been tinkering away, by Sally's request, on his mini-computer [or the laptop' as it'd been deemed by the markets] for several minutes now. "Gather round, we may just have found a way of fighting o' ugly back!"

Tikal gave the purple walrus a silent stare in return.

"_Oh_, yeah, umm, sorry Miss Tikal," blundered the lovable goofball, but by then she'd already turned away and didn't hear him [or was ignoring him]. Either way her vacant scare had given him the slightest chill up his spine, making his sponge of a mind wonder, could ghosts willingly affect the nerves in a living being without even touching them?

Alas, that thought would have to wait for another day [more likely the weekend, when the main bulk of his Sci-Fi shows were on TV], for he did indeed have [some] news to share.

Rotor just hoped they wouldn't freak out at his and Tail's idea...

"Okay Rotor, debrief time," Sally instructed. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

"Huh? What were we looking for?" Sonic said rather thoughtlessly.

"Yes, I too am wondering just what it is we're supposed to be looking at...?" Tikal said with a puzzled expression on her face, pointing at the laptop in Rotor's, well, lap.

An awkward silence hung for a second or two, before someone saw fit to enlighten the spirit girl. Well, at least an ounce [without explaining the last few hundred years of advancing technology].

"That is, well, umm" Bunnie fumbled. "It's a storage device for data." A pause. "Like pictures, sound and text."

Tikal gave the southern woman a smile in thanks, but when her former expression resurfaced it was only mildly enlightened. Still, she gathered round with the rest, being careful not to touch any of them and give them chills [or so the one called Rotor had told her would be the case if said situation occurred] and focused her oceanic pools on the laptop screen.

And then it transformed in front of her eyes like magic, from a bunch of written gibberish into a grid of geometric shapes, those corresponding to buildings [or the traversable rubble of such] were filled with a warm ginger red, whereas the vast bays of water were highlighted with a warm celestial blue.

Tikal was beginning to get what Bunnie had been trying to say, for it reminded her of diagrams and drawings she'd painted [or been privy to witness] back when she was a little girl. _It was back in..._ Her mind halted, as though it'd hit a wall. A little muddled, the echidna spirit simply shook her head and concluded her deducing: that this 'laptop computer' was simply another way of doing all that. However it all worked...

In addition, there were seven points on the map [conveniently labelled 'Station Square' at the head of the screen], pentagon-shaped [though of more the diamond variety], and they were all grouped together just across the bay from them.

"Are those what I think they are?" Sonic broke in, his usual cheerful tone replaced with an edge of infectious unease.

Tails took the liberty to look directly at the cobalt blue hedgehog, his 'big brother', and affirm something that he hadn't hoped to have been doing for a while longer.

_But then the human mind always rationalises insecurities that way..._ the young scientist thought wearily before answering. "Yes Sonic, they are the Chaos Emeralds, or more specifically the shells they used to contain the chaos energy." He and Rotor shared a sullen glance with one another. "And we think that they are now our last hope."

Sonic's face underwent a series of shuddering transformations; from disbelief, to anger and then crestfallen, which was halfway understandable considering prior Super Sonic related incidents.

The gang felt for him, but something needed to be done or else more devastation would follow.

So Sally and Tails hung back with Sonic to prevent him dragging his shoes too much, whilst Rotor took a rare opportunity with the gauntlet of leader, leading them to the seven jewels across the bay, atop a former highway bridge, leaving those that weren't Tails or Rotor wondering what use they'd bring now.

Four minutes and thirty odd seconds later and they soon found out.

The scientific duo picked up one of the emeralds shells, a dull grey and barely opaque, as a reference point, before explaining their theory.

"Chaos drained the chaos energy from them, but we believe that he only used the negative power of the Emeralds," Rotor iterated.

"Sonic, you should be able to harness their _real_ power!" Tails chimed in, less of a sullen demeanour now, but a small expression of hope. "Negative forces aren't the only way to empower the Chaos Emeralds. Our positive feelings toward each other, from our hearts, can make them form awesome power."

Sally and the others mulled this over. But before they could reach a vocal resolution, the proceedings were interrupted by the very person who was at the heart of it.

"That's fine and dandy guys – in _theory_ – but what about Super Sonic?" Sonic said agitatedly. "It didn't matter the last few times I'd been in a positive mindset or not, I still turned into that... _demon_."

"No, not you darlin'," Bunnie stated tenderly. "It was the evil in chaos energy that gave it form–"

"It was still my body 'he' used, and the flaws in my heart and mind 'he' bended to 'his' will," Sonic flung back in her face, tired of being the only one who was admitting the truth. His incarnation as Super Sonic came about because of him, no ifs or buts. That _was_ what'd happened – but no more.

"If I may offer my perspective...?" Sally stepped in carefully; also a believer of utilising brute truth, when she felt it was called for.

Sonic shrugged and then gestured his arm a little sulkily across to her; his silent way of saying 'go ahead'.

"Yes, you've made mistakes – we all do –," she emphasised evenly. "And at the root of it all, yes, one could say that you _were_ to blame," Sally articulated honestly, her light blues hues betraying neither sympathy nor contempt.

A bustle of objections from everyone else, even Bunnie and Antoine whom were very close to her [albeit in different ways], were directed at the Princess for the [in their opinion] 'harsh' overture of the Super Sonic situation.

Though these were quelled by the raising of Sally's right hand, leading to the continuation she'd about to lead into.

"_But,_" she boomed, almost startling everyone. Then a pause. "Think about it guys – as far as we know no one else has turned 'super' with the Chaos Emeralds for many millennia – right Knuckles?" she offered to the crimson echidna, of whom had been listening intently in the background all the while as he'd begun his own accepting phrase regarding the actions of his [former] race.

"Yes," Knuckles confirmed strongly. "As far as I know – and I haven't tried turning 'super', as you put it, personally myself," he added diligently.

"Why not?" Sonic quizzed. "Cos otherwise you could be doing this instead..."

The Guardian shot him an exasperated look and rolled his eyes. "I have had no need of it," he said simply. "But if I can [_and I don't see why not, if _you_ can_, he left unsaid], then I'll turn 'super' when the time is right for me to."

"So," Sally interjected herself back into the conversation. "If we take that to be the case, then that would make you the first in a very, very long time." She paused for emphasis. "But you _are_ young–" A disagreeing scoff of a cobalt blue hedgehog was heard from the crowd. "–And obviously inexperienced in using chaos energy, something none of us can personally relate to, regardless of any technology we have at our fingertips."

The squirrel female stopped there to murmur a silent apology to Tails and Rotor, but they waved it off with smiles. It was simply fact, and thus nothing for them to get offended about.

"It's something that'd probably take years to get used to, physically and mentally," Sally detailed articulately. "And everything involving Super Sonic happened in what, just over a year?"They nodded. "Also, after that first time you 'turned' and we had to tell you what havoc you'd wrecked, and murderous promises you'd sworn, how did you feel?"

Sonic glared at Sally darkly, his emerald hues filled with rashes of anger and disbelief. It'd felt as though she'd slapped him _and_ then told him she'd personally had a hand in Robotnik's rise to power.

In short, it really hurt, and so it was no surprise that he exploded at the rebel leader, so much so the Knothole gang actually thought, just for a second, that his spines would explode outwards with him.

"You wanna know how I felt?" the cobalt blue hedgehog dared in a low, raspy growl, stepping forward towards one Sally Acorn, who looked visibly unfazed.

"I felt like utter crap!" he shouted in her even face, before waltzing off to be near Tails and Rotor. "What a stupid question..."

"Exactly!" Sally declared.

"Huh?" Sonic replied dumbfounded.

"The very fact that you were inexperienced [with no specialised chaos energy teacher known to us] and then had that horrible, incontrollable experience, it affected you mentally," she implied sagely. "The raw evil in chaos energy took hold of that and used it as a hook – your negative emotions towards 'turning' again and anything else happening at the time nurtured it into manifesting as it did," Sally concluded, rubbing the hedgehog's right shoulder comfortingly.

He was silent for a moment or two, before quietly replying.

"So it was a series of bad stuff... that I couldn't really help?"

"Yeah Sonic," Tails stepped in. "So don't worry about it anymore."

"Believe in us. And believe in ya self again, okay sugah hog?" Bunnie reassured with that warm smile of hers.

"Hmm," the hedgehog hummed as he mulled it all over. "Then why didn't you bring this all up before, Sal?" he voiced inquisitively, raising an eyebrow.

"Because you'd just have avoided the subject," Sally stated adamantly. "And the wound was still too raw."

The hedgehog blinked, again surprised at how easy it seemed he was to read to her, or how he wasn't sure whether he liked or disliked this reoccurring scenario.

"How do you know that?" He still asked anyway.

"I know you at least that much, Sonic," she said simply, a smirk on the edge of her lips.

"Umm, guys," interjected a nervous, soft voice. Rotor. "I'm fairly certain that talking isn't a free action. How long can we really afford to leave Chaos unattended?"

The squeal of a coyote swiftly followed.

Sally was just about to reply when a series of droning sounds coursed down from above, causing them all to look up. And right at a fleet of four helicopters, each with a metallic blue-black hide and two rocket launchers at their base. Also a circular, white outlined insignia with three points extending outwards, which bleed into circles of black [and then red] and surrounded a capital, white 'G', was embedded in the sides of each.

_So this is G.U.N., the protectors of Station Square..._ Tails wondered, alight with curiosity. _The Guardian Units of Nations._

A hum of static, presumably radio orders, sounded and preceded a howling flurry as every missile solo detached two shells all at once and spiralled across the muted skies to their target.

The echo of the combined force sent the Freedom Fighters back a foot or two, as well sending their hands to comfort their ears. Minus one spirit, of course, who'd been shocked at the sheer destructive force that existed in this modern time, as she was sure that they could've destroyed her old home [_something ...opolis..._] in an instant in spite of all the defences it'd had.

It reminded the shrine priestess of the thoughts she'd had prior to Chaos and her being 'spirited' out of the Master Emerald. Those that centred on whether the world she'd seen as beautiful still was, and to whether her actions had simply echoed across time in order to allow this similar cataclysm to reoccur here. Today. This very second.

She sighed and then looked up into the swirling mass of dust and deathly smoke.

Then an onslaught of multi-coloured light pierced through it, incinerating its prey [who thought it was the hunter] instantly, sending a meteor-like shower screaming overhead.

The plume of smoke and ash trailed upwards even as the surge of the waters drifted it across the sea that was now Station Square.

Yes... Tikal thought. There certainly was an imbalance in the world, and it needed to be fixed, and quickly.

* * *

[ROUGE'S_ POV_]

**STATION SQUARE RUINS / CENTRAL BAY / 16: 31 PM**

In the deep abyss of space no one can hear you scream, that is what horror flicks have taught us all, right?

Well being deep under waters like this was no different. For it was an inky dark blue, peppered with debris that lay suspended on the steel coloured 'ocean bed'. Not to mention it was _freezing_, which was disorienting me a little. Which way up I currently was I couldn't tell you – it was like being in a small, dark room and being suffocated.

I thought this second time around would've been better, but it was proving not to be.

I had been down here three or four minutes ago, scouring the depths with what my sea green eyes could make out, when I'd saw it. Up ahead, hanging belly up over the perfectly intact form of a lamppost had been a body, though I couldn't get an idea of their gender at first.

Making long, graceless strides with my arms and legs I'd cleared that distance between us relatively easily, allowing me for the first time to see the identity of my survivor.

Parting the large mop of dark hair, black or a shade of brown I hadn't been sure then, but I'd found out that it was a male, probably in his mid thirties or forties, and wearing a dark striped shirt and dark blue jeans. I couldn't have [obviously] said for sure, having no personal interaction with him, but he'd seemed like a happy go lucky kind of guy, a nice guy.

Now the question had had to be asked, and so I'd whispered it in the confines of my mind.

_Just how long had he been down here?_

And that was why I'd be so bitterly angry to discover that he was already dead before I'd even reached the surface.

Spitting a curse into the now icy tasting air I'd only warmed up for a two or three minutes before my 'reckless streak' as I'd been noted towards more than once, reared its head, and all I heard was Topaz ordering me to stop before I entered the dark abyss once again.

This time I was going to save someone. This time, I wasn't going to fail.

And do you know what?

I hadn't. Not this time.

We were being wrapped in insulated blankets dropped off from various helicopters, the pair I'd saved more than myself.

I'd found the pair struggling to get atop a floating piece of rubble a fair few feet out of the line of a human's sight range. They were a human man and a Mobian kid, an earthly coloured mouse, which struck me curious.

The man's youthful complexion and soft features figured me him to be in his mid to late twenties. He had chestnut brown hair which was closely shaved to his head, a cobalt blue printed t-shirt saying 'Unsung Hero' and clay coloured khaki trousers. He also bore sapphire blue eyes.

Turned out his name was Dan and that he'd scooped up the girl – Juliette as I heard her whisper to the medics – from the impending waves right before it hit. Then they'd been swiped away, kicking and struggling to get to the surface – to find _any_ surface to recuperate on – when I'd come flying over.

Juliet looked shaken, but otherwise alright considering, and so after warmth radiated back into my fit body, I got up and decided to go look for Topaz. I didn't know exactly why I wanted to see her, right now, but I felt that I had to.

I didn't want any bad blood [that I didn't personally evoke] to hinder us on a future operation...

And so I'd let out a small shrill of a gasp when I felt a hand grab my left.

Turning aback, my lips curling into the beginning of a frigid accusation, I was met simply with a batch of shoulder length hair, a ripe blonde wheat colour, which was tussled into bubbles of frizz.

I averted my eyes down and was met with tiny, innocent oceanic spheres of wonder. Though I couldn't see what top she wore for the blanket covered her whole top half, up to her neck, but her bottoms peeked out the base of it, which consisted of light blue jeans specifically for the kiddie market.

A few moments of awkward silence bellowed in-between us.

Most of all, I was wondering just what it was she wanted of me?

Then she spoke for the first time, in a relatively cheery, yet evened pitch, sprinkled with a touch of curious awe.

"H-hey Miss _Rowge_?"

"It's 'Rouge', sweetie," I sighed, trying not to sound too kin to slip away in haste. "Now what is it? I have busy, important matters to be doing."

"W-well," the mouse girl, who I figured to only be about six, seven tops, stuttered again. "I asked those nice people, the _doctours_, about it, but they wouldn't answer."

She fidgeted on the spot, acutely unaware of my own visual discomfort, for I could see where this was possibly leading...

"But do you where my mommy is?"

_I knew it..._ I groaned inwardly.

"You saved me and Dan, so you must have got some other people too, _waight_?" she finished, looking up at me expectedly.

But I didn't know what to say!

What _could_ I say?

'Sorry sweetie, but your mum is most likely gathering rot and junk at the bottom of what only less than an hour ago had been the foundations of Station Square?'

And so by now quite flustered and thus unable to respond, I turned on my heel to face Dan who'd been watching us with mild interest.

It was only after the following incident occurred that I realised that he'd simply been thinking of his family [if he had any] and or loved ones as well.

"Hey you, lecherous eyes!" I flared, bearing my fangs. That caused Dan to visibly flinch in his huddled seating position. "You were the one who rescued Juliet here, right?"I demanded.

"Yes, I did. What of it?" he replied, not at all evasive, speaking aloud for the first time. His tone was deep, yet crystal clear, indicating furthermore that he was a nice [but probably boring] guy.

"Well Mr. Hero, you saved her so she's your responsibility now – _not mine_!" I howled heatedly in his face, degrading any sappy rebuttal he may have been preparing before I left them, not unlike the storm of frustration swirling inside my mind.

So I flew a little bit ahead, seating on the raised edge of one former road, away from the bustle of the rescue teams, and of course, them [and Topaz], and closed my eyes.

I breathed in and out, lightly then deeply, all the while trying not to recall the waitresses face or Juliet's.

What had started as a personal day off had quickly unravelled into a nightmare, only it was reality. The bile in my throat was testament to that.

And so after wallowing in self-pity [and a little self-loathing in addition] for a few more minutes, I breathed out deeply and then opened my eyes, the grey-blue world sliding back into view.

_I have to get past this 'funk' of mine_, was what I was centring my thoughts towards now, giving myself purpose and renewed personal strength of mind [or something on the road to getting there] once more.

It was then that I noticed an unfamiliar sight, at least for my last few years of life, across the other side of our bay.

There was a group of Mobians; one a small fox kid who curiously had two tails, and I could honestly say I'd never seen one until now – only heard about them in urban legends when I was growing up, another a rabbit damsel with a robot arm and leg which I couldn't figure out – was she some kind of war heroine or demonstrating some bold fashion statement?

Those two aside, the rest looked pretty normal; with a jacket and boot clad squirrel female, a male coyote coated in a cheap fancy dress soldier outfit and a cobalt blue hedgehog in red and white sneakers.

Then I noticed the other girl, a petite damsel in distress for certain, who had lengthy peach hair [?], oddly thick, that ran down to the midpoint of her back. I had no idea what species she was meant to be. _Another oddity_, I mentally noted. Not to mention the girl's attire looked so old and tribalistic!

I really was beginning to contemplate the notion that this bunch had been on their way to a fancy dress occasion before everything went to heck, I really was, as there was just no other feasible explanation for the weird group's existence.

And I could've sworn I'd seen a subtle white glow around her figure too, but I put that down to the stress of the day, naturally.

Lastly, my sea green eyes plucked out the last member of their group, another one of this [to me] unknown species, whom was standing sternly, strongly, at their back.

He was a crimson red individual, also with lengthy 'hair', and with impressive muscles [in all the _right_ places I might add] who wore a white pair of spiked gloves and had what I could only figure to be some kind of moon-related necklace around his neck. Or at least that's what I thought I could see. It was kind of hard to tell due to our distance apart.

And due to that meddlesome problem I couldn't tell what colour his eyes were either, but I bet they were strong, intense – a perfect marriage with his probable gruff and fighter nature.

All I knew, at the very least from the heightened, warm drumbeat of my heart, and the small lick I instinctively rolled over my hot pink glossed lips, was that I definitely wanted a piece of him!

* * *

[_NARRATOR'S POV_]

**STATION SQUARE RUINS / CENTRAL BAY / 17: 10 PM**

The flood waters were beginning to calm, the Freedom Fighters had noted at the end of their respective talk with Sonic [though that had yet to begin receding], but in a stark contrast this raging energy seemed have only channelled itself to a new dominion. In this case the old base of the SS Tower, as the surging tornado of water that had surrounded Perfect Chaos since his emergence in the city began to look [and sound] more and more fuelled by something.

Either way, Chaos' passive nature had finally reached its limit, and everyone knew it.

Knuckles stepped forward, also impatient with the way proceedings were going. Especially since he knew [but would never vocally admit] that he couldn't avenge his lost kind all by himself.

"Look, we've done enough talking," the Guardian seethed, before taking his steely gaze onto Sonic. "All we need now is some faith. With all of us here together then the positive energy of the emeralds will be realised in you, Sonic," he said faithfully, offering just the quickest pat on the hedgehog's shoulder before scooping up one of the emerald shells, this one in particular being the grey one.

"I agree with the Guardian," Tikal agreed steadfast, her demeanour having regained some sense of hope with the anticipation of this 'Super Sonic' being, for it the former shrine priestess with a feeling of giddy nostalgia. Though for what, again, she couldn't connect the pieces. "Our hearts together will win this out."

Sally nodded in affirmation, which led to everyone's focus turning to the man of the moment, the unpredictable ace of their fledging team.

The cobalt blue hero in question had been slowly tapping his right shoe at an evened pace, his head down, making the final preparations in his head before he left this starting line and burst into a sprint of hopeful light, the kind that would enable them all to reach that final post, the end of this adventure.

So lastly, with one final deep intake of breath, the spiny head rose up and he gave them all his trademark thumbs up sign.

"Let's do this to this guys and gals," Sonic insisted, that cool 'spring in his step' back in his tone. "Just remember that you know what to do if anything happens, Sal. And _do_, do it," he stressed seriously.

The Princess of Acorn may have nodded her head to this, but her heart did not comply. Something she willed wouldn't be the death of them in the near-future.

Sonic then took his place and closed his eyes. And it was only once everyone was around him, a dulled Chaos Emerald in each of their hands, that he noted that something was amiss.

Amy Rose was not among them.

* * *

**RUINED FLAT BLOCK / DOWNTOWN / SOUTHERN BAY / STATION SQUARE RUINS / 17: 08 PM**

The block of flats was in an even more sorry state than she ever could have imagined.

Torn holes in the walls, caused mainly by the sheer ferocity of the infesting waves, had spread like poked holes in a paper bag, letting in not only the traces of sunlight still seeping through the maelstrom of clouds above, but also a bitter chill of a wind. And the biggest fracture in the building's structure was undoubtedly the great ravine that'd cut said building in half.

The waters were a murky grey, diluted no less with tons of dusty slab and bricks, and reflected barely a thing, adding to the eerie, desolate feeling that crept around her, coming and going like a ghost.

Only a murmur of creaking whines echoed through the air, coming now and again from exposed wirings and [now] unstable wall structures.

_At least the air in here is better_, Amy thought gladly as she persevered on through. _Okay, it's a bit muskier – but I'd take that over the raw salt and good knows what else smell outside!_

The hot pink hedgehog had made use of the fallen rubble as platforms – since the internal staircase had been destroyed – and was now climbing up a vertical face, on which were extruding pieces of slab, that would take her to the sixth floor at last. Something her pounding lungs and muscles were much anticipating.

She knew that the entire structure wouldn't hold for much longer, maybe not even the next hour, and if they waited it out then it'd cave in and seal those left here in this watery tomb.

_I just hope that I'm not the only living person here_, the young girl thought emotionally, for the rational side of her mind had been reminding her of the possibilities, considering the suddenness and devastation of Chaos' attack.

But still, as Amy slung herself over the vertical slab and onto flat land once more, she held onto that hope, for without it she knew she wouldn't be able to proceed.

But after catching her breath it was then that she saw what lay ahead of her, in this case the ravine that had split the building in half – the Worthington flat was amongst those on the other side of it!

And from little light she could gleam from the sheltered area, there were smashed doors and rubble lining what had been a harsh grey floor clearing.

"Great, of all the luck," Amy commented mortally as she, for the first time, realised just how high up she'd trekked, and knowing that if she fell, there would be rubble-infested waters to smash into.

That grave thought gave her a small fit of shivers, but still Amy unloosened the Piko Piko Hammer she'd fastened to her back, and gazed across the way.

She took another intake of anxious breath before sliding up against the wall of rubble behind her, which caused a small bit of the edge platform to rustle away into the watery depths below.

This perpetual situation had just inched up a notch on the anxiety meter.

_I came here to better myself_, Amy reflected calmly. _And I have_, she stated honestly, warmly recalling her new openness with her old friends as well as the solo battle of hours ago.

_I've met up with everyone again and made amends. But Amber, Lisa and Zack have done so much for me, so this is the least I can do for them now!_

And so allowing hope to fill her heart – hope for her friends safety, and hope for a brighter future – she ran across the angled downward slab, slammed her hammer down and propelled herself through the moist air.

Seconds later a crunching sound echoed in the silent corridor of floor six of the oceanic flats building.

"Hey, did you hear that," whispered a heightened voice from the darkness.

"Yeah I did Lisa," came the deep, but noticeably anxious reply. "Do you think it's the rescue services?"

"Maybe," was the hopeful response, before a buzz of excited anticipation interjected itself into her voice. "Let's go look!"

"Hey, come back you two – it's not safe out there!" shouted another familiar, but cautious voice from somewhere not far behind the other two, younger ones.

But Amber just hadn't been fast enough and now Zack and Lisa had gone outside and found the source.

Then they all screamed.

* * *

**STATION SQUARE RUINS / CENTRAL BAY / 17: 14 PM**

To anyone well [and near] enough to see what had once been the shopping core of this metropolis – either from drifting debris and waiting for needed assistance to come, or from the [for now] relative safety of their still-standing tower blocks – they would have witnessed a very special and unique experience in this neck of the Mobius woods today.

For a group of Mobians, of various species, dressed and not, and colours, were standing around another, and it was what surrounded him that would keep them watching, as whilst they didn't know _what_ they were waiting for, they did however know that it needed to be witnessed, to be lived.

And that is what they did as the seven dull grey shells began to do simply more than levitate aimlessly in the air, instead spinning around the cobalt one subject in an orderly, slow fashion.

Sonic was in deep thought, and busy cleansing his mind of any lingering doubts. Being positive was the only way this would work and he wasn't going to screw it up [again].

Still, it was now many months after having beaten the thirst for this power from his active consciousness and into the deep recesses of his subconscious [with some mystical help], and here he was now about to uncork that very well of desire, this 'energy tap', in order to save the world from its [second] most dangerous threat.

So whilst he was currently feeling honestly reasonably good, and in control, the teenage hedgehog did wonder briefly at whether this contest of trumping 'your new power with mine' would in the end make a difference beyond this one situation.

He wasn't sure, but then Sonic's motto for as long as he could presently recall was to live life as free as the wind as possible, and as that _was_ his personal case, then uncertain situations like this were an inevitability, whether they brought goodwill or bad fortunate to him and his loved ones.

Today though he would stop running away and face this reservoir of desire head on, take control of it and bring a calm of peace to this part of the world. That was his natural virtue, to help without necessarily having a reason. He just did. That was who Sonic was [who he wanted to be].

And so the hedgehog clenched his teeth and willed a guiding force of mental energy, made up of his desire to protect and save this city and its people, his own friends included, to the blurry cork deep in his mind. Then imagining something hard and powerful, this tangible energy formed itself into a hammer, a size of which even Thor would've been proud if.

Then he smashed it against this mirage looking cork, forming a crack in its base.

As Sonic did this and he willed the rivers of chaos energy to course into and through him, the Freedom Fighters turned their gaze onto the spinning cascade of seven emeralds, for a vivid glimmer of coloured light was now growing in the centre of each and every one of them.

And in a cumulative explosion of will and power, the cork keeping Sonic's natural ability to harness and wield chaos energy ceased to be in a flash of white. Just as a similar flash preceded the revival of the Chaos Emeralds, whose colour, lustre and translucency had also been restored.

The body of the cobalt blue hero now, however, was undergoing its radical change.

_Ughh_, he grunted inwardly. _I forgot how much it burns when I 'turn'!_

And he was indeed burning up, both internally and externally [if one of his nearby friends had ] – and yet his internal organs and body were not being torn apart. They were finely intact actually.

Then Sonic corrected himself.

_No, this time I'm going to be me. No more alter-egos. Just true blue. _

The river of lush, vibrant energy flowed now through his veins, heart and mind, and for the first time he was actively aware of himself in this, the last triggering burst of his transformation.

And it felt _good_.

He could see more clearly than he ever could [with his physical eyes shut no less!] – a whole radius of two miles all around them all – and he hadn't even transgressed fully yet into what Sally and the others had affectionately dubbed 'Super Sonic' from the beginning: a golden red-eyed hero of justice.

A title he was now going to finally realise.

As for what it felt like, it was hard to put into words, but he'd associate it with what some medical professionals would class as a natural high, of which tasted like true freedom of his body and mind.

He felt he could do everything and _anything _now – but Sonic reined those lusty thoughts back with considerable ease and then he felt his whole being shudder violently.

The Freedom Fighters had noticed this too and yelped, but stood firm as well, deciding to hold each others' hands: Tails with Sally's, Bunnie with Antoine's, Amy with Rotor, and Knuckles [albeit with slow awkwardness] with Tikal. Keeping their eyes open even against the surging light, for they wanted to see this through as much as Sonic did.

Then the shuddering high exploded within Sonic and he let out a primal scream.

A gigantic column of pure white light rippled outward from the cobalt blue hedgehogs' body, knocking the Freedom Fighters back a few feet [though none were wounded at all], before it then swiftly rose and rose.

This spectacle of light was even visible from space...

And then it went out like a candle flame.

* * *

XXXXX

**Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream**

XXXXX

* * *

And thus ends the twenty-fourth chapter of this story arc!

The beginning of the end and the end of the beginning has begun.

Next time things are going to get explosive!

* * *

Sorry if the second Rouge portion _dragged_ on, but I really wanted some collateral loss of life and some hard decisions to be made [as one might have to in disaster events]. Especially since the Sonic Adventure game had nothing of the sort. Remember 'All's well that ends well'? Ugh...

I hope I managed to show off some facets of Rouges' character too. She sure was a challenge to start writing, but then she just flowed and flowed to me. Looked my 'fancy dress' comments I had her make towards the FFs. Hehe.

And yes, I cut out the 'Egg Carrier 2' segment. I just didn't think it'd fit in, especially since it's only been, like, just an hour since Robotnik had been left in the Mystic Ruins [whilst everyone else's consciousness were in the ancient past]. Sorry, but I didn't think him being picked up and taken to _another_ secret base where he just happened to have built a replica of the Egg Carrier and come back to Station Square, just to have been blow out of the sky in five seconds, would've been of any worth to the narrative. Of course, that is just my opinion.

Made Chaos annihilate some G.U.N. Helicopters instead, though!

* * *

2010 should see this story finished at last, though I don't know when the next one should be expected by.

I hope you enjoyed this, and the chapters so far, any comments or ratings would be nice and appreciated! ^-^

Take care ya'll ***smiley face***


	28. Don't Fear The Reaper

**Disclaimer**: _I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "**Change The World**" by ARTIST Dream

* * *

**CHAPTER 25: Don't Fear The Reaper**

[_TIKAL'S POV_]

After Sonic screamed out, a corona of golden light blinded everyone in the nearby vicinity.

Everyone except me that is, I'm already dead after all, and so it didn't pain me to look at it.

And thus I could see into its heart, even as my dreadlocks flailed in the makeshift wind, where I saw the cobalt blue hedgehog's short-haired skin licked clean with blazing gold and his spines to grow a few extra inches.

As his eyes remained closed due to the concentration needed to adapt to his new form [and one that his friends had alluded to just a few times had gone wrong in the past], so I could not see whether his eyes were the same or not. Mine hadn't changed upon contact with Chaos [and his eyes even now remained their emerald green], so maybe nothing would happen here either.

_Hmm..._ I wondered inwardly as I continued to bear witness our last hope of defeating Chaos [or weakening him at the very least so that he could be sealed away...], noticeably the fierce, yet gentle, aura that was now rippling around the young man's body.

An eruption of positive chaos energy that'd spouted up from the renewed Chaos Emeralds in a form I could only describe to mortal eyes as white fire.

The same white fire that now ran through Sonic's veins, causing the muscles beneath his peachy [and furred] skin to tense, tighten, and expand just a little.

It was the most amazing sight I'd ever seen [I'm sure I'd be shivering with excited anticipation, if I wasn't dead].

It was also one of those moments where one would, sometimes, rest their head contemplatively against a hand [or two], like I was now. As though I had seen this somewhere before – though not in motion.

_Or have I?_ I questioned, not sure whether I should continue to trust my 'spacey' memories.

_Not that it'd matter for much longer_, I thought with a small smile [which the others, had the light not ailed them, maybe have taken to be quite sad looking, I imagined]. F_or after we have dealt with Chaos I'd finally be able to ascend to heaven_.

That is, if I'd done the right thing by sealing Chaos [and myself] away – what I was _meant_ to do, I added a little unsurely. And I was sure that I did, but it was just... It was just... the sheer absence of time within the Master Emerald. It gave me ample time to forget things.

_Though were they even important...? _

'If you can't remember something, it's like it never happened. Likewise, if something never happened, you can't remember it. Try too hard to remember and your memory might lie to you,' is something that I [still] remembered my grandmother telling me. Her sayings, and her way of looking at things always stuck with me.

She was kind of an inspiration, even now in death. Or this half-life, as some might define it as.

_But still..._ I thought grudgingly, even if she told me now to simply wave this whole sensation off as simply some side effect of having a prolonged 'half-life' [her faith in the Tomes of Aurora were stone clad] – having not made my peace and moved on to the next life yet – I couldn't say for sure that I'd believe her [and I'd never disagreed with her, for I _remembered_ her scolding me for never doing so].

She'd deemed it 'naivety' on my part. And that night, before I'd closed my eyes and let my body rest, I'd figured that she was right. I did find it too easy to agree with the opinions of others – though I'd put that down to being surrounded by others of similar opinions, that was, until me and father...

I shook my head of the stinging memory away, instead wondering as Sonic's cocoon of pure light began to disperse, about Knuckles.

I felt drawn to him somehow, and didn't know why. We'd never met before this event started.

Or were my memories indeed lying to me...?

_I wish I knew what this all meant_, I sighed. The closest, I wholeheartedly felt, that I'd ever come to doubting the powers that be, the Great Aurora.

Of that I was sure of.

* * *

[_SONIC'S POV_]

_Wow._

That was all I could describe this as.

And then after my chaos energy levels had reached their limit, tendrils of the stuff had begun leaking out around me.

I'd screamed. Not your half-assed kind either, but a proper, primal _scream_, as I realised the possible implications of such untamed energies running wild.

Thankfully, peering through my eyes [which I'd already felt change to a cherry red – confirming that little detail which I'd grudgingly agreed with my friends on post-Super state], I could see that the others had shielded their eyes. Well, minus, Tikal [for obvious reasons] who looked as though she could see right into me, which was mildly discomforting for a moment or two, and then it ceased.

The licking fire in my veins had become stable. No longer was the chaos energy trashing about in there, as though it wanted to break the shell [my shell] that it was confined to.

Inside I still felt boiling all over [if anyone took my temperature now, or tried to touch them, boy, oh boy would they get a burning shock!], however, but it was no longer agonising. It was just _normal_ for me now.

_I could get used to this_, he told himself. _I'd never be cold again!_ He joked.

Lastly, beyond the peculiar change of eye colour [green to cherry red], and the few inches on my spines [which feels very cool by the way], I noted with uncanny briskness the radius of energy signals I was now [unwillingly] picking up. It was probably something like a mile or two, when before it'd been none – I only knew my own mind, my own energies and strength.

Now I could see not only infrared-like signatures of Sally and everyone inside my head, on that blank greyish nowhere space you see whenever you close your eyes [it's especially clear in total darkness], including a couple dozen across the bay, but also dim traces of what I assumed was chaos energy [it looked and felt like it, to me].

My chaos energy, shaped like a sphere at my heart, was a warm yellow whilst everyone else was either a dim orangey brown [my comrades, except for Knuckles whom had more of a striking purple thing going on, and white for Tikal, which didn't faze me] or a dark grey [those across the bay, minus one, whom was a dim orangey brown].

Surprisingly enough, despite the unthinkable feeling that the sensation was as though someone had scooped out my head and stretched it across this distance, it actually didn't cause me any pain. It was just an _odd_ feeling.

Though I was glad that I didn't get the extension that pretty much every super-powered up hero from comic books [at least the ones _I_ read] gets, the seemingly infinitely useful psychic powers... [I didn't want any more voices in my head but my own]

_Though I'd sure like to know what Sally _really_ thinks of me_, I thought mischievously, just for a second [really].

As this thought transpired my beacon of light began to fade and it was then I finally set my stony gaze upon the source of this adventure [and ironically enough, behind my first, untainted 'super' transformation].

Chaos' aura of chaos energy was gigantic compared to my own, and looked akin a tornado. A tornado of a violent, jagged-looking emerald black sort that is.

And its _eyes_, those slimy green eyes were looking dead my way now, and whereas before they'd looked dismissive [as though I was just a fly he'd sooner or later relish no matter what], now there was a small crease surrounding those orbs [which looked a little darker, or was that just the flow of dark energy coursing around it... him?].

It looked as though it's interest had been heightened a bit – my power boost pushing my boundaries [as though something had been unlocked from within, I felt] and putting me more on his level – so Chaos knew I meant serious business now.

_And ya know what you _gigantic_ drip?_ I thought justly, as a wide grin, that wasn't the result of overconfidence, rose from my face, and I stared him right on back.

_I'm going to personally show you just how much better I am now!_

So I levitated swiftly into the sky, before then stopping short for just a second.

I whirled around to give the guys back on the ground the good old smile and thumbs-up to let them know things had run smoothly, and it was a good thing I had. Sal and Tails almost looked like they were crying [I'm terrible at comforting people], and perhaps they had been, but now at least I'd quelled that fear – our collective fear – before slowly ascending once again.

A wave of serenity [not a word I've ever really found the time and place to use, personally, but I couldn't think of anything else] had erected itself within the confines of my mind, spurred on by the heartfelt thought that I now had the power to protect everyone.

And with that all said and done, it was time to get this mighty show on the road.

* * *

[_AMY'S POV_]

I can't remember the last time I was nursed like this.

That was the first thought that rang into my head as I awoke, briefly, from the greyish black encompass.

_Funny how things like that crop up in our thoughts, out of the blue, isn't it?_ I spoke to myself, not having the strength yet to utilise my vocals, but having a hazy half-sight in which I could see tied-back flaming hair and a furious intensity in pools of dark green hovering above me.

_Amber, it's Amber_, I acknowledged gladly, as though committing it to memory in case I forgot. My head retched with coiling pain.

I couldn't see or feel my own body either, just her, so it felt like I was floating, floating in nothingness. It was both liberating and scary.

I wanted to wake up. Truly wake up, _now_.

She was administering some kind of antiseptic on my forehead now, and then she went on to spread it on my arms, knees and legs.

I couldn't yet _feel_ it though, and that shot me back into a flash of memory [along with a fresh dose of head pains]. And I'd called them that, ever since I was a little girl, because they were just that, a flash, not like proper daydreaming or dreams of sleep. I'd generally had them, sometimes, when I was awake and consciousness [usually when I'd remembered where such and such was, my 'eureka' moments as you will], but this one had come right before I was plunged back into the dark void. It was hazy, but not so much that I couldn't tell what and who was in it.

* * *

_FLASHBACK_

_There was a medium brown coloured racoon woman garbed in a musty green cloak [which had seen much better days], who from what I could tell couldn't have been be less than twenty [nor anymore than twenty five], and a racoon boy [no, her son], who wore a brownish blue overalls uniform and small black shoes, had a scruffy brown-black mop on his head [which nevertheless made him look adorable to me] and might've been six, maybe five._

_I, on the other hand was coming up to my eighth year. _

_The pair were the remaining few in the now dispersing crowd outside the school._

_But it wasn't my school, no, for I viewed this from afar. They were down there and I was up here._

_The roads they traversed on were made up of cream cobbles, which looked like bubbles from a rising oven mixture, and were hazardously cracked in places. And the buildings [including the school] consisted of browns, greys and musty greens, but far from being drab and dreary; to me they exuded a pleasant _warmness_. _

_Mine, the only ones I'd ever personally experienced, were the complete opposite. They were bright and loud, sometimes _jarringly_ so. And it made me wonder how I'd be able to live here for the rest of my life if however, one day, I couldn't simply live down there. _

_I sighed. Knowing that mother and father probably wouldn't like it if I did that... So I turned my mind back onto the mother and son and was met with an intriguing sight. _

_I'd heard of the motherly 'kiss it better' display act before. Well, more overheard one of the commonly seen ladies at our house muttering something about it [I was hiding behind the tall, but thin banisters at the time, because I thought I'd heard them mention my name when I was walking down the overhead corridor]. If they did though, I never heard it come up again. I did hear mother mentioned once or twice, amidst the whispers, though. _

_... But as I was diverging, I had heard of it, but never experienced it myself. My mother had always been busy doing something or other, father too. _

_Our hired help, albeit [generally] friendly and polite, just weren't the same, and nor were their nursing hands. At least, that's what I'd believed. And still did to this day._

_The beaming smile on the young boy's face as she rubbed in some lotion to his bloody knees [despite the pain] before then hugging him tightly couldn't be lying._

_Just like I couldn't deny the bile of envy that was now stirring in my heart... _

"_Amy, what in blazes are you staring at girl?" came the pompous, boyish voice. And I winced. "Don't you remember that we have things to do, yes, many things," the boy two years my senior quickly slipped into a mutter, not listening for [or caring] for any answer I gave, before he forcefully grabbed my hand and whisked me away. _

_And just like that the daydream was shattered, and that as they said was that._

_/END FLASHBACK_

_

* * *

_

Then I was jostled back into reality, the now, with the seeds of a realisation, as my eyes fluttered into yellowish light. Though looking at it caused a faint wave of faintness to come on, threatening to drop me back towards the darkness.

It was at that time, however, that the nerves in my skin began to loosen up and I felt the effect of Amber's still working handiwork. Her touch was cool and soft, which contrasted with the shearing pain the antiseptic wrought.

And as the light began to fade and my irises began to paint in my surroundings, it was then that it clicked in my mind.

_These sensations... that flashback..._ I reiterated to myself. _Amber's touch, Amber as a person, they're both motherly._

A smile danced onto my face, where once dirtied cuts began to rest, as this sunk in.

I'd trusted Amber that day we met, let her into my ailing heart, because she had a maternal quality about her – the one I'd scarcely saw in my mother before the end...

_And Lisa and Zack, they're the siblings I never had [and never will]_, I continued on forth, wondering at the same time just why I hadn't connected the dots before?

_Why do we always recall that important nagging thing after the fact?_ I thought with a hint of agitation as the world saturated back into its normal, non yellow feverish-inducing state [at least in the world I knew about]. In fact, there was minimal light at all in this dark, familiar haunt of a room, almost as though–

"Ughh..." I groaned as I flung myself up instinctively – but what I'd _meant_ to say was: _Are there candles burning?_

"Amy!" Lisa cried eagerly. "Don't get up just yet, rest for a while. You almost smashed your face in outside!"

"Heh, don't go changing into your sister too early now, ya hear?" I managed to smirk as instead of lying me back down [she knew how stubborn could be], the young lady propped up my pillows against, from what I can feel, was the front of the sofa.

This, for the first time, enabled me to see just how everything had changed in just a few hours.

Dust, loose ornaments and small morsels of rubble littered the floor, joined by smashed-in picture frames that'd once hung on the now dark, dust-covered walls. And the electricity board had obviously been cut – something else I should've realised quicker – for none of the lights were on, so yes, there were indeed candles lit, but only the two, one on flat piece of rubble somewhat near the room's centre, the other in Amber's hands, to reveal cracked glimpses of the worn room.

My refocused eyes then trailed to my friends. No... My family. Or a _part_ of it at least.

Thankfully they all looked relatively unscathed, just minimal cuts and bruises. _Not like your own action girl wannabe_, I voiced. They all looked scared and unsure [and rightly so] of what to do with themselves. Nevertheless work their heads around the suddenness of this disaster.

"Amy, I thought I heard you telling my sister not to turn into me," teased the woman of the abode from the archway that had once led into the kitchen area, and was now filled with smoky, dark rubble from the floor above [I presumed].

"Hey, I meant nothing bad!" I chimed back, noting that she held something her free hand. "I just want her–"

"To be her own spirit? I know, I know," Amber finished for me with a pleasant breath, her smile not quite reaching her eyes as they usually did. And it made sense if you saw her eyes, which looked tired and anxious [from my angle at least].

You didn't need to be a smart alec to know that the means to survive and live through this kind of thing was never even imagined by the health and safety class at school, nor by parental figures [which Amber had, by a cruel twist of deathly fate, been given the sole reins]. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'd simply be screaming my head off, had I not had the experiences I'd had in life already.

She noted my concerned staring and gave me another smile and dropped something into limp

It turned out to be what she could salvage from the little corners of the living room [thank goodness for leftovers that were half-picked at or simply forgotten], little packets of assorted fruit and cookies [albeit a bit warm]. And upon gorging on the fruit I realised just how thirsty I'd been, and was glad that some plentiful liquids weren't that far away, for I'd seen the G.U.N. and med units across the bay on my way here.

Now I just needed to get Amber, Lisa and Zack and myself out of this place

"No pressure girl," I whispered sarcastically.

"Did you say something?" Zack piped up curiously from his own assortments.

"I was just thinking of how I could get us all out of here," I conceded, giving the quiet, but good-hearted boy a small smile, which he returned, after a reluctant pause.

I then used my right arm as a support post and hauled myself up to my feet. Whilst the gauzes and cuts remained, the pain [thankfully] hadn't, so I was raring to go.

"Wait a second Amy," Amber interjected, a stern edge to her tone. "Can you at least enlighten us as to just what's going on, and why we'd want to out _there_?" she continued, her voice raising. She half looked as though I'd gone mad [and considering the climb down, perhaps that was the correct diagnosis], but still we couldn't remain here. Especially not with Chaos still on the loose.

So I quickly summarised what had transpired with Chaos back on the Floating Island and the jump in time with Tikal, two pieces of the Chaos puzzle that'd formulated in today's catastrophe. I'd later fill them in on my last stand on the Egg Carrier, and Gamma's sacrifice... but for now, time was of the essence, so I strode over to the door and was about to turn my gaze onto Amber again, to persuade her that this was the best way forward [the only way] when the room was engulfed in light.

Through my partially covered eyes, through the slits in my fingers, I could see it more clearly. It was a radiant gold and white, almost heavenly, and it was coming from outside.

Curiosity halted all our other thoughts, naturally, and so we to go take a look, an anxious knot tying my heart as I did so, for I could think of this as none other than him.

_But _which_ him?_ My inner voice sounded tentatively, as I then joined the others and looked across the bay.

And there I found my answer.

* * *

"Who is that?" Lisa uttered in awe, seeing the same thing we all were, a figure cocooned in that radiant gold and white light rising slowly into the sky. Below him were a group of people that looked like ants from up here, but were undoubtedly Sally and the others.

_And they aren't running away, or attacking_, I pointed out fiercely, that knot in my heart loosening – which meant...

"Sonic... Sonic's fully taken control of his Super form!" I cried out in excitement. The others looked to me and saw hope in my eyes, and whilst they knew the barebones of the Super Sonic nightmare – they hadn't lived through it – but alas, looking at them now was like seeing a reflection of myself.

Hope is potently contagious after all, and so whilst they may not have been completely sure at what was going on – what this meant – they looked ready to leave that hope with him, with us all.

I was so entranced by the golden hedgehog, who was now level on level with 'Perfect Chaos' itself, only a mile or two of settled bay between them, that I didn't hear Amber saddle up alongside me.

"So this is it, huh," the young woman sighed anxiously. "The final showdown?"

"Yeah, it certainly is," I replied vivaciously. "Super Sonic is the ultimate force. Chaos doesn't stand a chance!" I chuckled lightly, prompting Amber to do the same.

A soft, patter of silence then crept in for a moment, or three, before we touched on the inevitable.

"So do you know what you plan to do when this is all over–" She paused. "You know, if we make it out of here?" she asked warmly, that harsh, maternal edge now slightly more tender [made even more so by the whole dramatic situation].

I knew what I wanted to say [I'd made my decision], but I didn't know just how to factor my fresh flashback [and realisation] into it [if I needn't at all]. I was still racking my brains as to why I hadn't connected it all together.

So I closed my eyes, breathed in and focused.

And then it washed in and I soaked it up, just a small glimpse, of an earlier time in my life [I guessed I was about five or six]. Me and my mother were in the garden [which was so big I'd got lost in there alot I recalled vividly] together, and I'd found something on the ground, by the big green tree.

It was a moth, or to be more specific, its cocoon. I'd learnt about them [and butterflies] in a book from school fairly recently. So I'd called mother over to look at it with me, for you see... I'd felt that something was wrong.

It'd shook mildly, from time to time, in my few moments alone with it – but still no moth was emerging [even close to such] from its silky peak now that my mother was by my side, a soft, happy expression on her made up face.

So I'd kneeled down to pick up, to help [somehow] the moth get free.

But a fierce hand pulled me back before I could [_mother..._] – her face now sterner, and slightly colder, in its exuberance.

"_Why... Why won't you let me help Mr Moth, mother?_" I'd choked up, looking up at her as moisture collected around my green pools, ready to spill like a torrent [_I didn't just understand..._].

"_Oh Amy... My cherub..._" she'd begun carefully, comfortably, trying to come across more sympathetic in spite of her fierce tug on me. I'd simply gazed up at her in confused wonder.

"_You won't understand this now, but you will, one day, many years from now,_" mother had insisted thoughtfully, kneeling down to meet my confused, warm eyes. "_But that moth in there?_" she'd pointed.

I'd followed her lilac gloved hand.

"_He needs to do this himself. Without any help,_" had been her pearls of wisdom, short and concise [_no wonder I couldn't understand it_].

"_B-but what if h-he c-can't? What will happen to him then?_" had been my worried reply.

A silent, pained expression had slipped onto my mother's face. And she'd never given me an answer [_but I know now_].

Eventually the moth had broken free – a medium-sized, smoky grey with orangey owl-like markings, moth to be precise – before flying away into the trickling sunlight, far, far away.

"So that's what she meant..." I realised gladly, coming back into the here and now. For just as the moth would be stronger for breaking free by itself, so would I for working things out for myself. That was the lesson mother had [tried] to let me in on, even back then.

_Thank you... mother..._ I spoke to her [non-made] grave.

And perhaps additionally, I'd just needed to have lived, breathed and laughed with them both, side by side, to have seen just how much they all meant to me [and in what way].

"You're a strange girl sometimes, you know that?" Amber and Lisa both said near at once, causing me to burst into a fit of laughter at their awkward, yet light stares.

"Maybe so, but I wouldn't change that for the world," I rebutted with a twirl of my fingers and a cheeky wink.

"Oh, and I have decided on what I want to do, after all this," I confided politely. The trio looked to me expectedly, with Zack, I noted, leaning up against the door.

"You're a second family to me, and the Freedom Fighters my first," were the honest words that came out of my mouth, like a breath of fresh country air. "Not that I value any one of you over the other, mind –" I interjected tenderly. "You're equally more family than the blood ones I once had [at the end]".

"But I'd like to go back to Knothole with the others and catch-up, see how that goes. I've missed them, the village and everything, ya know..." I trailed off sheepishly, a touch of blush surely gracing my warm features.

"That's good Amy," Amber breathed in acknowledgement, nodding her head as she did [where more of her natural smile, the one that reached her eyes, had returned]. _She knew this would be the decision I'd finally come to_, I inwardly voiced, and I guess I felt a little bad about it, but not too much, for I had told the truth. "It's time you took the reins of your own destiny, only then might you find what you are wishing for," she finished boldly, embracing me in her warmth.

"Yeah," I smiled. "Thanks Amber. I'll get you all safe passage to Knothole [if I can], I promise!"

Looking back outside for one last time, I saw Super Sonic dodging Chaos' blows tentacle for tentacle, and I silently wished him all the luck in the world.

"Hey, it's good that you know what you want to do now Amy – but can we please get going already, those two could be cruising through here at any moment!" Zack shouted honestly, a bit impatient, but telling the god's honest truth nevertheless.

And so after picking up our sofa-seating bags [they'd managed to get to my room and retrieved what was salvageable, which was more than they'd expected], partly sentimental stuff, partly material, that's what we did.

As we made our way slowly down the building of flats [which I felt, even then, we knew would be the last we'd see of it] a series of sonic-booming sounds and flashes of light splashed across the skies, and through the holes and cracks surrounding us.

The battle to protect Station Square [maybe even the world] had begun.

* * *

**STATION SQUARE RUINS / CENTRAL BAY / 17: 26 PM**

[_NARRATORS POV_]

Sidestep to the right...

Duck to the left...

And spin-dashing these particular assets of his watery foe was not proving especially beneficial to the new being, Super Sonic, whom was still trying to get a sufficient blow in.

"Alright you green eyed ugly," the golden furred hedgehog taunted, batting away another tendril of water, who wanted to be too intimate [crushing him] for his liking, "Let me at ya already!"

*_Play Sonic Adventure – It Doesn't Matter_*

Chaos roared, as if in response to the challenge, and let its tentacles settle on some thereby half-standing building tops, before firing a massive blast of overwhelming energy at the radiant nuisance.

Super Sonic propelled himself forward, a translucent gold afterimage trailing behind him, and burst to the rightmost side [that he could] of the oncoming beam of fiery chaos energy.

Doing such a manoeuvre in his normal state would've surged his outer skin right off [and that wouldn't have done his fabulously groomed spines any favours at all], but now?

Now it just felt like an extra breeze of [unneeded] warmth. It didn't hurt an ounce. And the coursing chaos energy within him was also constantly purifying his body – his spines had never felt so groomed!

_If only I could keep that, sans the golden radiance_, Sonic thought merrily. _Oh well..._

And then with a resounding clap, he made contact with the slimy hide, and sliced right on through where an animal's right shoulder would be [though Sonic wasn't sure he could even say Perfect Chaos had any, as in his eyes the watery beasts' structure was more of an irregular mess than it had been in his previous forms].

The right shoulder-like region of said beast, worshipped as a water god, let off a crackling sound as Super Sonic descended downward, lightly skimming the moderately calm waters as he surveyed his handiwork. A crestfallen expression began to seep in and take root in no time at all [for him and his comrades across the bay, who could also see the unfolding proceedings].

For you see folks, instead of dropping off into the cool bath below, the gruesome scorched gloop was rattling about like someone with the jitters. And seconds later, gloop by gloop, it splashed together piece by piece like organic stitch work, rendering Sonic's attack, well, utter moot.

And with a hissing roar [and the return of the skewering tentacles, not to mention that beam of intense chaos energy], things then carried on as if he'd never got a shot in – and he'd been hoping for an _eye shot_ would you have believed it – and this was beginning to aggravate the former blue hedgehog [who for a second, absentmindedly wondered if the eyes would come back the same way]...

_Just what do I have to do to beat his guy?_ was the short [and polite] thought process that strongly bleed into his conscious mind, however, as he zigzagged to and fro, and gaining air, in an attempt to shake off Chaos' 'feelers' [as he'd now dubbed now – mainly because that evoked a slimy shudder to crawl over his skin, in a similar vein as to how being trapped under water could send him reeling with fright].

Sally, who was busy elsewhere, didn't note this [though Bunnie would voice it off-handily later], but as the Super hedgehog was forced to smash himself into [and bounce out of] a nearby business building [which was vacant, from what the blue blur could gleam from the five seconds he was in there for], the zigzag trail he left behind looked [and sparkled] rather like a lightning bolt.

And so one [or two] people's cogs began to turn...

But back to the battle ground, where as [some] Freedom Fighters looked on in awe of Sonic's newfound grace and prowess, the dark green jewels that enabled Chaos to witness the world, and in this particular scenario, this pest [not menace] of a foe, glowered with annoyance.

It was nothing on par with the anger it felt towards the echidna race for their selfish, self-glory bloodshed [and had carried for many _millennia_ inside the Master Emerald], but the proclaimed water god was, to put it mildly, pissed off.

Perfect Chaos was so much so that even the winds were beginning to growl with increasing bile, or at least until the penny dropped on Sonic [and the others] that the wind was getting louder and stronger around them because it was being [psychically?] channelled through multiple funnels of water.

And then with elegant ease [and no tentacle arms in assistance], these watery tornados were chucked all at once in the golden hedgehog's unfortunate direction, who even with all the power he had at his fingertips, wasn't sure that being tossed around by any of them would be such a good idea...

Especially if all his chaos energy was used up because of it.

So the former blue hero darted off to the side, allowing just a fragment of biting wind to claw down his left side, staggering Sonic in mid-air and leaving him as exposed as a lone daisy in a field.

"Ok, so this is going to be a little tougher than we thought." Sonic said in a daze, unaware that little beads of sweat, a sign of his natural mortality, were trickling down the back of his neck, before realigning his upside down position with a swift spin.

And in no time at all the golden being was racing dead ahead to the towering monstrosity, his mind running on instinct, and his blood pumping as fast as a sprinting athlete.

Perfect Chaos had only three to four seconds to process this development, which led to all its piercing tentacles to gorge out mortar and water instead of mortal flesh, before the blazing form of Super Sonic planted a solid fist to the bottom of his train-length jaw.

The revered water god roared in fury at this new sensation, agonising _pain_, which naturally made it worse. But even in this thick veil of anger, it had realised a succulent opportunity.

For Chaos [especially now it was _Perfect_] did not miss twice.

And so the golden hero was startled when those aforementioned tentacles retracted back at lightning speed and blocked his notable exits, and had barely turned quarter way behind himself when he felt the maw of a single, condensed water tornado slice into him all at once.

It was almost as though Perfect Chaos had swept him up into its mouth and was now rearing with angered might to bring its fanged jaws down on him, to crush him with upmost primal glee. Even in his Super state, he didn't want to risk becoming lizard... [?] food.

But it wasn't. Not that that fact made the shearing pain that he was now enduring any less so, for it felt like he'd been cut into ribbons, or at least, all his nerves were blaring like he imagined such a grotesque execution would feel like [if the victim was still, somehow, living throughout].

_Ugh... I really need to stop watching horrible flicks before bed. And maybe the accompanying late night binges_, mused Sonic [half] jokily as his momentum accelerated from the reeling blow.

Super Sonic had pasted the point of no return. He knew it, and the horrified screams of the Freedom Fighters, who'd since been approached by the rescue teams over the bay, indicated that they did too as they were forced to witness their friend fall out of their sight, like a falling comet, into the waters ahead.

* * *

**STATION SQUARE RUINS / CENTRAL BAY / 17: 35 PM**

They had come across the sea.

At least, with the city as it was, it felt that way to Tikal, who despite having followed the Freedom Fighters [among others] since her abrupt expulsion from the Master Emerald [and so had glimpsed them, many of them in fact], this had been the first time she'd physically come into contact with any humans herself.

_I can't believe that I had the opportunity to meet a whole new species_; the former shrine priestess had thought in awe on reflection. And they, for the most part, looked as naked as the day Mobians are born [or it seemed], but other than that, she could see no differences in how they and Mobians interacted with the world [especially in regards to speech and emotion], as the shapely bat

They were a curious delight for her.

But she couldn't let on that fact too much, and so Tikal didn't.

So when the short haired brunette, Topaz, accompanying the bat, Rouge, and the President had tried to shake her hand, she'd flinched away, preventing contact, and had simply bowed her head in an awkward, but joyful-looking greeting instead. As not that any of them had tried to [_and what reason would they have to?_ Tikal added internally], but she doubted that as a spirit she could be touched.

It was best that her _ghostly_ origins be kept secret, save as to not make the current situation even more complicated.

Or at least that is what Tikal told herself, as truth be told, the echidna girl was beginning to see that there was many wonders to this brave new world she'd fallen into.

And it would hurt her heart to leave it.

Thankfully, Topaz walked off to speak with the President, seemingly oblivious to the brush off, leaving Tikal to content herself again with compounding thoughts.

_Oh Chaos..._ she mourned inwardly, having just watched the water god secure a crushing blow against Super Sonic, _If only I could remind you of the way things were; of those Chao you'd sworn to protect [they regarded you as their father you know]. And of me, for was I not your friend...? _

She turned her gaze onto the Freedom Fighters, who were in animated discussions with Rouge, Topaz and the President. The man with the elongated face and dark brown hair had a grave look swimming on his face.

Tikal presumed it was about Sonic, and just what they'd do if he had fallen [not that she thought that, he just didn't look like the type to give up so easily]. This thought was cemented also due to the fact that she could _feel_ that he was alive, shaken and battered, but alive all the same.

Then the petite echidna stopped in mid-step, noting that there was something wrong with the picture in front of her... just where was Knuckles? _Did he go off to fight Chaos in Sonic's place?_ Tikal thought sharply. And that gave an added anxious beat to her heart, as incorporeal as it had been since she'd died a dozen millennia ago.

Unbeknownst to her at that moment, the crimson Guardian in question was now out in the quaking waters, having remembered something important about this region of town... whilst Sally and co, meanwhile, had just been enlightened on another situation, one that could aid Perfect Chaos in his complete destruction of the city [and all who still inhabited it]. For you see, the...

"–power generator, from what our scientific team at G.U.N. have observed since that monster... Chaos, swept over us all, has become increasingly AWOL due to the masses of energy being convicted by tsunami it brought," the President said seriously, sweat threatening to trickle down his brow over how _bad_ this day had turned. He hadn't even had the chance to inform Rouge of why he'd brought her in... And that could prove disastrous in the long run.

_I should make a quick phone call to Victor, just in case..._ the President made a mental note to do in the next few minutes, before turning a serious, clean eye back onto the assembled persons and speaking once more. "And they informed me and the head of security, who is currently advising the science team on the best possible route to the–"

"'The best possible route' you say? What do you mean by that, sir?" Rotor enquired, ignoring Sally's mild look of disapproval, not anticipating a good end to the query.

The adult man, the appointed overseer of life in Station Square [and its relations with other civilisations] for little more than two years, did not look angry at the interruption [or at least if he was, his eyes did not give anything away to Bunnie, who saw herself as a relatively good judge of character]. Instead, he merely give a small laugh and ruffled with his sleek white collar [as despite the cold infesting waters and the setting sun, I guess one could still say that there was a pretty decent summer's heat trudging on].

"The answer to that young man is horrifyingly simple," he began tentatively, boring his small, hardened eyes at them all. "If left unchecked – and the probabilities have been run countless times already – then the generator could explode and level the remaining city and surrounded areas."

This left everyone visibly shell-shocked [not just Antoine] as to how the danger factor had been turned up a notch, especially Sally who'd made that life-changing decision to start up a resistance force against Robotnik over five years ago. Before they'd been fighting against Robotnik pretty much in their own backyard, but now there were needed to help other more experienced soldiers [the Princess didn't like defining the Freedom Fighters as such, but its grains of truth couldn't be denied] in saving a whole city of thousands, maybe even _millions_.

It was a daunting task, but from the determined [albeit slightly anxious] looks Sally received from her comrades, her friends, she knew that they were in all the way. They had to help out, even if it got them all killed.

_You don't need a reason to help someone_, Sonic had said to her one night in that first year he and Tails had been adopted into Knothole Village. And now more than ever,

"Tell us what you have planned, Mr President," Sally responded diligently, the others taking their place either side of her. A look of relief had coursed over the man's face, before he'd sheepishly pasted the debrief over to Topaz, who'd been chatting to the science team via her ear piece communicator, and he had broke apart from the group to make that telephone call.

Rouge had been tempted to go after him, still annoyed at to not knowing what he'd gotten her out if her den for, and also for the fact that she'd heard that said den had collapsed into the waters not long after Chaos' attack, but she'd steeled herself to stay for the debrief.

And mostly because she doubted anyone in this 'club house' looking bunch of Mobians could undertake such specialist missions, save for maybe that crimson furred guy, who hadn't come back from his hastily dive and swim yet.

Topaz then made the bat hold open the laptop [causing Rouge to roll her eyes in annoyance], which depicted a 3D matrix of primary red and blue lines that made up the city from a side view.

With a touch of her index finger she brought to the foreground a 3D side view, consisting now only of red lines, of a series of tunnels, which the high-ranking agent then went on to explain was the sewer grid. And with another tap of a button on-screen, which Rotor, who was positively welling up with giddiness over the technology just a few steps from himself, noted said something along the lines of 'Coordinate Best Route to Value X'[this assigned value being 'power generator'], the angle then changed to a top-down view which inked in a red path.

The lovable walrus was almost tempted to ask just whether they were looking for any interns, whilst he gazed into the laptop's crystal-clear screen, and Tails, who was by his side, looked at it a little less intently, but had blue pools of curiously on him nevertheless.

* * *

The gathered group had then discussed among themselves over who should undertake the mammoth task.

And not long into the proceedings had come a bold "I'll do it y'all,' from Bunnie, whose determined demeanour both warmed, and put their hearts on tenterhooks. This generally meant Sally, and a fidgeting fox [and coyote] in particular.

"Are you sure you're up for it darlin'?" came a snide, merry interjection, from none other than Rouge the Bat, who was still wondering what to make of the abnormalities the self-proclaimed 'Bunnie' mustered. "I mean, I wouldn't you want to snap–" She made a quick snapping gesture with her hands. "–like a twig down there, all alone..."

"Rouge..." Topaz glowered – but Rouge waved her 'old lady' superior off.

"I may not have wings, and I may have metallic limbs you uptight bimbo, but I'll be darned if I weren't someone with a bit more class, not to mention strength, than yourself," had been the smooth retort through curled, smirking lips.

Steam could have literally come out of those elongated ears Rouge had [and in Tails' imagination, he swore that he in fact did see some...] from the screwed up, narrow expression that erupted from her face, venom pouring out from Rouge's sea green in particular.

"_Oh yeah_? Well at least I know what the company of men feels like, not to mention that I don't live in a hut in the middle of the woods like some sort of social outcast," the jewel lover had then spat back, having squeezed out of Topaz some details on their new 'best friends', for it was oh _so_ good to have some leverage of surprise over friends and foes alike at all times, Rouge lived by.

Bunnie's eye visibly twitched, mainly from the sheer ignorance this bat girl was displaying, and inwardly on the small, belittling cut it had inflicted on her heart.

"You really are a devilish piece of work," the southern belle radiated with trembling fury, before cocking her head in Topaz's direction, who'd been holding in exasperated groans at the childish, bitchiness of her assigned comrade. "I'd keep an eye on this one, she'd stab you in the back if it got her a shiny penny," warned in mocking earnest.

At that Rouge had fallen silent, as her snaking tongue suddenly stuck to the roof of her mouth and refused to budge, but eventually managed a 'does it look like I give a damn' like scowl in her new found rival's direction.

Though deep, _very_ deep, in the huntresses heart, she was all in honestly a bit intimidated by the fiery disposition that Bunnie had edged towards her [and not many could claim such a feat]. But that subconscious wound to her pride would have to be licked clean another day, as the Rouge fully aware of herself had decided to shrug and let things continue, knowing that should the rabbit girl fail [and she was close to wishing her to], then she'd be happy to save the day. The probabilities for rewards of gratitude from the President would be immense, after all...

Following that frosty interlude, it was actually Tails who beat the Princess to the punch, asking the southern maiden in a small quiver of a voice whether she was sure about undergoing this, for the deathly events of the echidna past wasn't looking for a new head space anytime soon.

Bunnie had noted that from his eyes in seconds, and so for probably the first time in a long while [_if ever_, she mused swiftly], the young woman didn't kneel down to the young fox's height – he was growing up, and she felt that she and the others should start respecting that, especially in light of their time here in this personal new part of the world.

"Sure I'm sure. But if I get in a spot of bother, I know where to holler. Y'all ain't getting' rid of me _that_ easy," the warm-hearted rabbit promised with a wink and a small, light laugh, opting to mime fist to fist with her adopted nephew in a similar vein to that which he and Sonic shared.

And from the brightened eyes and smile on his face, as Bunnie went 'round and hugged each of the others in turn [Tikal merely wished her good luck, adding that she'd pray for her success and safe return], it looked like he appreciated her gesture.

It was then that the light of the setting sun sailed behind the maelstrom of clouds, leaving only a small band of light [and Chaos' radiance] to illuminate the ruined city. And that meant that it was going to get cooler, but colder in the calming waters, something which would increase the mortality rate of anyone still hanging on out there.

As if to defy this, a hoarse bellow, and splash, came from behind them. And what the Freedom Fighters saw was [or as Sonic would sincerely bring up later, a definite camera moment] a most unexpected [but warm-hearted] sight they'd seen all day, for being transferred from a tight neck embrace and into cradled arms was a young boy with a mop of chestnut brown hair and turquoise eyes, who could be no more than six and whom looked more tired than hurt.

And it was Knuckles who had saved him, seemingly from nowhere.

"Whoa, whose the kid, Knux?" Sonic would have asked, so Tails had voiced a shorter 'Who's the boy, Knuckles?' one instead.

"Just a fan of superheroes," was the simple, honest reply, with not an ounce of his usual self-consciousness. "Take care of him won't you?" The Guardian spoke sharply to the nurse and doctor, clad in traditional white and blue uniform, who had come across to take the young lad back to their set-up nursing pad across the bay.

"Of course, sir," said the woman with his brunette curls up in a bun. "And thank you."

"No problem," the crimson Guardian replied with a small warming smile. And with little self-consciousness either, he realised. Then Knuckles turned back to face them all. "Now then, _I'll_ turn off this generator," Knuckles then fired up immediately, a clear-cut tone of certainty in his strong voice.

When meet with curious looks, he simply replied that he simply had good hearing – he hadn't been struggling back at the 'shoreline' for the last few minutes, of course not...

Those who knew him didn't believe him, whereas Tikal didn't see the washing line of lies and believed him.

"Naw, you're alright Knuckles. But thanks for–" Bunnie expressed politely.

"No. I insist, Bunnie. There must be more survivors out there," Knuckles added. "And you're one of the strongest all-rounder's in the Freedom Fighters. They'll need you in order to do a great team effort," he continued persuasively, his purple eyes brimming with steel resolve.

"And besides..." he trailed off momentarily. "I'd like to help in any way I can, not only to stop that _monster_," he almost roared, causing the guys to visibly flinch. "– and save the city, but to redeem and better myself as a Freedom Fighter – even though I really only am part-time one."

_And also... for Tikal_, the Guardian wisely left unsaid.

Bunnie, who had been pleasantly surprised, and to be honest, more than a little relieved to be, umm, relieved of the mission [that she didn't see anyone but Sally undertaking – and she hadn't wanted herself to be worrying for her up here if she had], took a moment to collect her thoughts.

And about whether to press him, she supposed. They all knew he was hurting from the truth about his race, and Chaos' hand in it, and so he felt. No. He _needed_ to have a hand in his defeat, and since Sonic was now fighting Perfect Chaos again [he'd shoot up into the skies again during Knuckles' return], then this was the next best thing to doing just that.

So the rabbit gave the crimson echidna a play fist in his right shoulder and wished him luck.

Soon after that, the young man who'd been saddled with the mantle of guarding a powerful, world [potentially reality] bending emerald – and recently just six more – was now willingly undertaking another mantle. One that, if he succeeded, save countless lives and the remaining physical legacy of one of the few remaining human settlements on the planet.

The science team had quickly excavated an entrance to the tunnels, just half a mile northeast from where the FFs, Rouge, Topaz, The President and Tikal had stood, but remained nervous about the probabilities that other sections of the tunnels had probably collapsed in on themselves already.

So, thankfully for them, Knuckles was well prepared for that, and with just a quick gut-pounding moment of reluctance preceding it, the young Guardian stepped down into the darkness and let it seize him entirely, all with just one thought on his mind.

_The end begins now, Chaos. My people _will_ be avenged..._

_

* * *

_

Back in the eye of the storm, and just minutes prior to Knuckles' descent, a spread of bubbles sang the arrival of a floating body garbed in golden fur to its surface.

"Heyeh?" came an incoherent mumble through a mouth awash with salt water. Which tasted icky [as one would naturally expect], but at least it wasn't blood he was tasting, Sonic thought gladly.

That aside though, and despite the pain-shearing cuts engrained into his nervous system's memory, the golden hedgehog felt more of energy than bruised and broken [though his sides did hurt a little, Sonic begrudgingly admitted to himself].

And it didn't matter that they did either, for he knew that the chaos energy would heal his wounds. Sonic wasn't afraid of having being dealt a hidden mortal blow [at least, not yet]. But he _was_ afraid of the fact that this short dip would most likely have shortened the time he had left in this state, because after, _if_, he turned back, then he'd be truly out of ideas.

"Okay, enough time talking to ol' grey matter true blue," Sonic voiced impatiently, and a little ironic at that, considering he was the only in ear shot [save for maybe Chaos, who he doubted would even be interested in the world's largest pizza right now]. And then the young hero propelled himself forward so that he was floating upright in the water [whose temperature he assumed was bitterly cold, since his Super state was still keeping him constantly warm as well as refreshed], and then looked up.

And was Sonic glad that he had done!

For a barrage of tentacles, not to mention a furious roar came at him like a shockwave from ahead, reacting so swiftly, and so cleanly, that they didn't even skirt the water.

"So you resumed your little game of demolition whilst I took a time out, huh? How very confident of you," he taunted playfully, darting past the first appendage and then spinning off the next one in tow with a handstand, before boosting up vertically, spinning like a spin top toy, leaving the remaining tentacles coiled dumbly into one botched mess.

"–Because as old lard bucket has begun to realise, there's one thing that you simply shouldn't do when it comes to yours truly..." he continued enthusiastically, before then trailing off for anticipation effect [which was more for his own amusement than Chaos'].

"Never put me in a tight spot!" _Because I come back twice as awesome_.

And with that the golden being shot out like a bullet, his crimson eyes hungry to get back at the watery being with a winning strike.

He no longer cared for the resumed spewing of slicing tornados tearing up what remained of the Station Square skyline, but he needed to get close to pinpoint a weak spot.

But then, halfway through his approach, a familiar buzz sounded into the rushing air.

"Oh for cryin' out loud," he moaned, recognising the caller ID on his communicator [that had by a miracle, still been hanging for dear life amidst one of his back spines]. "Can't they see that I'm a tad tied up here?"

Still, he answered, more out of politeness than anything, and the next sound the cobalt blue hedgehog heard was the warm and playful, but rigid, voice of one Sally Acorn, and from what his ears could gleam [the water tornados _were_ still coming at him after all], Rotor and Tails were with her.

Sonic supposed, hoped, that they'd come up with a plan of attack he could take rein of. And his friends didn't let him down.

Admittedly though [and so more zigzagging evasive actions later], all Sonic had heard sounded like gibberish, but then when the small matter [_ha ha_, Sonic inwardly laughed at his own silly joke] of Chaos' brain, the pink squidgy matter that was still as content as ever within the gigantean mass that was the head, was brought up, it all fell into place. Why hadn't he thought of it before?

_... Don't answer that Mr Subconsciousness_, Sonic interjected. He got enough flack about the way he used his brain from Sally every other week as it is, without arguing with a non-entity in his head. And besides, it wasn't as if the [Operation: Chaos] plan hadn't entirely not come to mind before – for he had noticed that racing at incredible speeds as Super Sonic he'd left a lightning streak, but now the others had told him that his form had also transformed into such.

Furthermore, Rotor and Tails had together theorised that using this speeding velocity would enable him to use the water tornados to his own advantage in that, to get a clear shot at the cortex of Perfect Chaos, Super Sonic would have to gain momentum, and the golden hedgehog would do that by corkscrewing around the tornados' circumferences before charging himself at Chaos. His velocity and momentum, coupled with physics and gravity, would do the rest they promised – which was good enough for this cool hedgehog!

And so, thanking them and 'signing off', Sonic turned his attentions back on his towering foe, who looked livid [or as livid as a big water monster with a train-sized mouth, and teeth, with countless probing tentacles could look like] at being ignored – if our blue blur had of gone with Tikal's suggestion to, somehow, purify the beast, then to say he was failing would be an understatement.

_Wow, and to think he started off just a little bigger than me_, Sonic wondered. _Those Chaos Emeralds really are a barrel of surprises._ _It almost makes me wish for the day(s) they got into the hands of Plunder and his sky pirates, before they'd been fully restored..._ he continued on with a gnawing twinge, as he closed the distance between him and the mass that was Perfect Chaos. _Almost._ He shuddered a little at _that_ unexpected recall.

And right that second, his crimson pools indicated, a water tornado was coming right at him.

_Perfect._

Sonic had figured that flying up to meet him wasn't an option, not least because of the jaws that could trap him, but because he was adamant that a mild flick of that head would sent him careening into a nearby building and bury him. And if that were to happen, the golden hedgehog wouldn't know whether the remnants of his chaos energy wouldn't exude from him, in an explosive fashion (and thereby, possibly, hurt other people). Not to mention another full-on laser beam.

Then it hit him. If he couldn't get at the head from the top, then how about ascending from the bottom?

And so that's what Sonic settled on as he and the slicing fury of a tornado met just mere feet away from Perfect Chaos' base, in turn utilising his greatest assets, his speedy feet, in order to essentially _surf_ his way up the watery maelstrom in a fashion that reminded him, a little, his and Knuckles' escapade at the Sky Sanctuary Zone actually. And any Robuttnik-kicking times were good times for him!

But alas, once Sonic reached the water tornado's peak, he shoot off with a flurry of the wet stuff cascading from it, breaking its form for a second or two before it went on its aimlessly merry way (and straight into another building), and then dived straight towards the base where Perfect Chaos and the new sea met.

And with rip-roaring momentum (and okay, the laws of physics), he dashed right through Perfect Chaos' watery body – feeling again a zing of that 'natural high' that had come with this fully-conscious Super transformation, and not so much a fear of the heavy water at all – and smashed into its pulsating brain with a furious bang.

Perfect Chaos spontaneously exploded in a shower of sparking liquid, roaring in pain.

"That's one point apiece now, ya _big drip_," shouted Super Sonic jubilantly. _I will defeat you._

Perfect Chaos, meanwhile, piece by regenerating piece, had collapsed into the water and reformed a great distance across the bay. Away from its SS Tower sinkhole and nearer the Freedom Fighters, or more specifically, nearby the tunnel excavation...

And while Super Sonic could not yet hear it, the chorus of cheering extended beyond the Freedom Fighters. That is, to all of those still stuck in buildings or in the rumbling waters [and even some of those mending down on the questionable ground].

Although this strengthening bond of hope across strangers from the respective families of humanity and Mobians did not break one's resolve, one's praying spirit, that a different end could be met. And who knows... maybe miracles really can come true.

* * *

**STATION SQUARE RUINS / CENTRAL BAY / 17: 51 PM**

"Everyone, we need to get away from here," Tikal spoke up suddenly, out of the blue, her usual soft and gentle tone uplifted to a warning crescendo. "It's not safe."

And when Perfect Chaos had reformed himself just over a stone's throw away from them all, they all collectively had that similar strand of thought, thinking it an obvious observation, and thus completely missing the point the spirit girl had been trying to let them in on.

But like a curtain drawn over a window, they didn't see it at all, and they only mildly began to move to farther shores.

_They won't get away in time_, the former shrine priestess realised gravely. That small inkling of _knowing_ within what she deemed her corporeal [but at the same incorporeal] soul getting brighter, much like a train growing closer and closer in a dark tunnel – until a collision must occur. _And I'm not important._

So she expanded on the emergency at hand. And then that warning crescendo culminated with a vengeance.

"You need to get away from the building you're next to – _now!_" she screamed.

And so they did, putting their faith in the calm and quiet individual [though Topaz had had to press Rouge a bit more, due to her huge scepticism], and had swiftly evacuated the 'platform' they'd been standing on to another via a shrinking 'pathway'.

"How are you to be knowing this?" Antoine had spoken little below a high-pitched squeak whilst they ran, snapping shakily back to reality when he saw Perfect Chaos turn its sneering long face over to where they'd just been.

"Yeah Tikal, are you, like, a seer or something?" Rotor interjected wearily, a stitch beginning to spread at his sides.

By this time the group had come to a reassuring halt and were looking as the petite girl with anxious curiosity. Especially to Rouge and the others who by now were beginning to suspect there was more to her than met the eye [with Rouge personally having noticed that 'Tikal' wasn't leaving any foot print disturbances in the ground].

"I'm entirely sure _that's_ the case," she responded with a slight blush, trying to explain as much as she could. What she understood of it all anyway. "But my time (and close contact) with Chaos, a _god_, in the Master Emerald... It opened me to a vast sea of possibilities. Like it... Well... Umm..."

"Enlightened you, or some of that jazz?" Bunnie finished for her. Tikal returned a smile in thanks.

"Yes," she articulated slowly. And there gave a small pause to look at the non-Freedom Fighters present. "But that comes with being dead I suppose."

Those not in the know gave her a shocked [silent] gasped expression. Although it was Rouge who, in her own way, thought what was really on their minds.

_So, she's a ghost...?_ the shapely bat deadpanned, fighting heavily the urge to roll her eyes and groan. _I think after _today_, I'm not going to be surprised by much anymore. And actually, I wouldn't be surprised if a fiery hell god came out of the ground next and started fighting that Chaos monster_, she mused, bordering on sarcasm.

"But from the few instances that I've had this sensation," Tikal continued, her voice reminding those present of a cool wind washing white foam onto shore. Delicate, familiar, and yet unfamiliar all at once, as though coming from a distant unknown place. "–like how I found Knuckles in Station Square after the Master Emerald was shattered, or the robot Gamma in the Mystic Ruins." No one present, not even Amy Rose, knew just why the robot would've been stationed there [and they never would]. She paused. "And even Chaos fighting Sonic on your first night here."

"Although..." the peach-coloured echidna mused briefly, "–They have not always been accurate in their portrayal, so this building could be the one from my vision," she said truthfully.

"It iz so unfair," Antoine lamented pathetically. And Rotor joined him. "Not to mention the lameness of it all..."

It was then that Super Sonic landed another brutal blow to Perfect Chaos, and upon its re-emergence it had retaliated with a devastating energy beam right at _them_, thrusting the gang into the waters.

"Help! Someone please help us!" a foreign voice sliced through the air not long after. And then another, and another [and you can see where this is going].

And not one to turn down a person in need, Sally Acorn, who was little worse for wear from the unexpected swim [albeit the gushingly, sickly intake of salt water that'd wormed its way in her mouth], had utilised old lessons and swam after the survivors in need.

Seeing this, Antoine, who'd surfaced legs first, was hit over the head over just how much he wanted the _Princesse_ to see him, actually _see_ him – and not as the cowardly man who disgraced the soldiers uniform he wore pretty much always either.

But darting his blonde mopped head around [like a headless chicken], heart pounding in his chest [seemingly ready to take flight], Antoine couldn't see anyone that either wasn't nearer someone who would, or had been rescued whilst he'd been looking so.

And then a ginger mop of hair suddenly shot free of the water nearby, a boy of ten or a little more, and his blue eyes bleared with panic. But he wasn't screaming – although the way his mouth feverishly contorted would've argued against that – for the boy, Dan, was mute, and had been all his life.

Antoine began to push towards him, doing a half-assed attempt at doing a front-stroke crawl, before his brain and heart could even exchange hellos. So when that ginger faired kid had sunk once more back under the surface, our whimsy hero was only a hairs breadth away and so he dived on after him.

Or he would have, had a hollering voice not have sounded from a few feet away, and drawing ever closer.

"Antoine, sweetie," Bunnie breathed quickly as the waters bopped her and Antoine up and down. "Let me save the kid, okay?"

"Why?" he responded, hurt. "Are you not believing in me?"

"No, _no_, it's not that. It's because I –" she began tenderly, Bunnie's green eyes shining and her right hand slowly, anxiously arching over to caress the coyote's face, before he cut her off.

"Non, non," the French man seethed recklessly, all thoughts of impressing the _Princesse_ gone from mind [mostly]. "I-I am needing to be d-doing this!"

And with that the coyote dove into the murky waters, and leaving his fate just as obscure.

* * *

**STATION SQUARE RUINS / UNDERGROUND POWERGRID TUNNELS / 18: 08 PM**

Down below, it wasn't the fact that a few feet into the entrance to these catacombs there'd been a pile of rubble blocking his way [that have been easily dug through], nor that downward slopes in the right path had become waterlogged [he'd practised the art of swimming a lot back home], but things weren't going so well because, well... Knuckles had actually found himself a bit lost...

Topaz had given him a spare gadget, communicator thing [to be returned, obviously], whilst her bat friend had pretended to look at though she wasn't looking at him – not that Knuckles would've noticed either way – and it was supposed to lead the way. Or the red lines were, but at the moment they were becoming obscured with orange and yellow ones [something our crimson Guardian wouldn't have linked to a certain water monster being right above him and distorting a concoction of wavelengths, an lessening the efficiency of such devices], and so it was becoming a bit disorienting.

But still he walked down the dark, mangy tunnels, whose earth-compact walls were beginning to give way to rough, but solid grey slabs. Many of the overhead lamps having instead decided to bathe in darkness due to lack of sparking nourishment, the device in his hand being his only light source. Not that Knuckles was afraid of the dark [no way], for much of the Floating Islands' own tunnel systems weren't connected to any unnatural light sources [and even if he'd wanted any installed, he was no engineer of such]. And the crimson-tempered Guardian was well aware of those.

Thinking about it, the further Knuckles trekked into these manmade tunnels, the less he thought of them. And it wasn't just the nauseatingly heavy, damp air, oh no. It was the fact that they obviously weren't serviced that much [from the worn, cracks now and again, to the general grubby wall surfaces, and naturally the ease it'd become waterlogged and the power disrupted], and they [supposedly] formed the heart of the city! _And all those nauseating lights..._ he recalled with a grimace.

"Hmph," he grunted angrily to the empty tunnels. "My Islands' tunnel system far outnumbers these, and yet _I_ keep tabs on them all." _Best I can anyway..._ he added.

_But still_, the Floating Island Guardian frowned as the grey mass of tunnels narrowed into one path, which had one or two lamps still on. _That beast could probably easily absorb whatever power this explosion of power could cause. It could even be its plan. And so I have to stop it, for everyone and myself_, he cemented.

And Knuckles did this just as he passed through the last archway, and so failed to notice a curious sight hanging atop it.

It was a curious symbol, made out of seven triangular points that drew in close – that was 3 points at the bottom and top, with one [two pointed] stretching across the circumference – which simmered a radiant gold, as though it was living. And at the centre inter-linking all of this was a tall, but rounded eclipse of a shape that was made up of countless bands of light, making it look akin to a rainbow. Finally, at the core of this 'egg' like shape there was a small three pronged crown indentation, coated in bluish silver, which was almost surgically separated by a bleeding white band of white in its centre.

... Nor the quiet, melancholic sound that then brushed over that same room, whispering softly to no other but the abundant darkness.

But in the next room, however, Knuckles was met with a whirring madness of activity, almost as though a breathless welcome to its foreign visitor. For you see, its walls, its floors and its air hadn't seen a visitor in a long while [as the crimson Guardian had suspected].

That was due to the marvel of modern technology, of course.

Pillars of conduits littered [and illuminated] the four corners of the room, its size akin to a medium-sized garden [more width than height], and at its centre was the power generator, hold firmly just a few feet beneath the sleek tiled floors by a solid, thick casing of material, and its control console just in front of it.

Knuckles the Echidna had finally arrived at his destination, and as he stepped briskly forward, the young man took a gander at his device again, just to see the code once more.

Now, seconds later, he stood at the control console, a maze of levers, glass screens and buttons. And then there was the noise was a myriad of buzzing, ones that stayed at a constant humming, ones that remained low and hidden [to those of normal hearing], and then the droning, piercing ones that came every few seconds. The term 'hot under the collar' was starting to apply here too, if the gathering sweat on his forehead was of any indication.

It was enough to make his head feel woozy. Knuckles would rather deal with his ancient ancestors' ancient technology anytime instead.

_But I have no choice_, the Guardian remanded himself for wavering. _So here I go..._

The President had told him to look out for a set of controls contained within a container of purple tinted lines and so Knuckles scouted across the console for such, and found it with minimal fuss on the far right side [you wouldn't keep the power or and self-destruction switch in the centre of a console now, would you?]. The numbers panel at the bottom of said contained space glinting blue and silver up at him now, as if egging him on, causing Knuckles to shake his head of such nervous thoughts.

And then he began to enter the de-activation code, his hands lessening in their wobbling with each correct digit.

_Zero._

_Eight._

_One. _

Knuckles' finger skirts over to the last one [_Five_], but he hesitates, for something suddenly feels amiss.

It was [unknown to him] that quiet whisper he'd missed before, but now it darted out from the darkness and through the sparseness of the room, giving the wind-less air a soft, screaming, phantom quality that embodied the prickling sensation that one was being watched. A hair-raising feeling: that someone was behind you, completely motionless and silent, but that if you only turned around, they'd vanish into thin air, as if never there at all.

"This is _ridiculous!_" he shouted, cursing these spineless jitters. "There's no one here but–"

Unfortunately, Knuckles would never have the chance to utter another word, for in the shadows there _was_ a figure. A figure so hidden, it was though it was garbed in the darkness itself, and whose eyes shone an emerald crimson – a figure also with something in his long hands.

And it was with this, and a single flick of a finger, and a sadistic beaming smile of white from the darkness, that an echo of a simple 'clicking' sound filled the large open space.

The glassy surface of the generator console served to only reflect Knuckles' shocked and angry expression before he was enveloped by the sudden explosion of fiery light.

* * *

XXXXX

**Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream**

XXXXX

* * *

And thus ends the twenty-fifth chapter of this story arc!

* * *

The beginning of the end and the end of the beginning has begun.

Next time the last stand reaches its climatic conclusion – and its aftermath will change the Freedom Fighters' lives forever!

* * *

And here we have Antoine pull off both a brave [and selfish] move to deepen his relationship with Sally, as well as prolong Bunnie's suffering [sorry Bunnie], and Amy learns an important lesson.

Tikal's grandmother's quote in this chapter is spoken by the Cheshire Cat [yes, _that_ Cheshire Cat] in the Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories game on the GBA.

Axed titles for this chapter included: 'Hyper Sonic's Birth', 'Golden Anger', 'The Stage Is Set', 'Ripples' and 'Beyond Good & Evil'.

And who was the mysterious figure at the end? Well, let's just say... that won't be the only mystery left to figure out by the final upcoming chapter... ;-)

* * *

I don't know when you should expect the final one to come out – probably not in July, maybe in August [though I am going away on holiday for a week or two then], or September. Either way, the story will be done this year!

I hope you enjoyed this, and the chapters so far, any comments or ratings would be nice and appreciated!

Take care ya'll ***smiley face***


	29. Let There Be Light

**Disclaimer**: _I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "**Change The World**" by ARTIST Dream

**CHAPTER 26: Let There Be Light**

* * *

_FLASHBACK_

_Eet was a cool and crisp day. Ze summer sun having nested itself comfortably behind wisps of cloud, a move which served to reflect ze true colour of ze waters that surrounded us, and also allow me and Poppa to better envisage what lay within eet. _

_My Poppa, Armand, you see was ze general of a King's army. And not just any King, but King Maxmillian of ze Acorn dynasty which ruled over South Island [and probably other places too, though I didn't know for sure]. _

_Naturlish the time we spent together was short [but all the more wonderful for eet, admittedly, when they came around, at least for me], but they could much be, how do I put eet, quite 'silencieux' times. _

_And I often wondered [in my nevair wandering head] of ze reasonings as of why, in my lone times, and with my nanny. Ze many times when Poppa was not around. I am not recalling zat it was always like this, but I could not be getting ze words out of my head, no matter how hard I tried. _

_Until zat is, one day came. A day where ze Mercian skies had lighted up not just the city and the far, far away lands outside eet, but those words that had been hiding in my head, and they'd leapt like a deer from one of the Acorn Hunting parties Poppa took me to on rare occasions, and hit me with ze force of an icy bluster in winter time. _

_Those words of truth that'd I'd buried from even myself all my living life. _

_The simple fact that I was not very good at doing anything, at ze school or at our home. _

_Zat was something I was going to – I _had_ to – change, and so... I'd asked Poppa that I was wanting to do this – moi heart drumming as loud as zat of ze marching guards out of the palace when as I did – and he agreed quickly in turn with a spring of his browing eyes. Eet was much peculiar – but I didn't ask about eet [no less because eet was bed time, and I was quite tired from this school day's events. No ask do you not about 'spiriting' and 'pencing', non, non]._

_A week on from zat promise [a vow between parent and child was held sacred much in our city, ze scoo-lairs at my school had said so] and we were here, just a small ride out from ze city walls, and next to me Poppa was smiling much. I was too, naturlish, but that echoing drumming had roosted in my chest again, and I knew zat eet was speaking to moi of my nerves. Non, non..._

_To make it go somewhere else I looked at Poppa once [he didn't see] and then closed my eyes, and thought of Momma. Of ze days before she left us... _

_I did not want to chew on what I might be biting today. Non, non, I did not. _

_The fish were liking to jump and flounder, as well as biting, zay say. _

_Poppa was a man of few words, and relied on helping hands around our manor [especially after Momma left] to get things done, be eet ze gardens with their beautiful shades of blues, yellows and white, our aforementioned grand manoir, or me, but when eet was time to be loud and to the points, he was very much ready to do so. _

_Eet probably helped that, aside from formal occasions, he pretty much always wore his general uniform [and with ze honourable pride he did so, I cannot fathom as to why never he would _not_], a coronation of red, blue and yellow jacket and blue boots, and so Poppa could put on his 'fierce' mask whenever he needed eet. _

_In ze times before Momma left, he was pretty much the same, but I remember him smiling and laughing more. And spending more time with me... _

_So with all zat in my mind, this fishing trip was of much importance!_

_But we had been here at least an hour now [or so eet was feeling to be], and I hadn't hooked a single morsell. Or nothing at least zat could be classed as an edible flounder. And so I left my eye wandering as my bait, some kind of slimy shrimp, floated aimlessly in ze teal coloured waters, which was tinged a miniscule brown at ze deepest part. I did this for one clear reason. I was being bored out of my growing mind! _

_But surprisingly, ze surroundings of ze lake were not so boring as I was expecting them to be, for despite ze sun not being at its bestest, ze tall grass zat crowned ze rims of ze lake still swayed hypnotically in ze soft breeze, as though they were flailing arms swinging in ze air and enticing me on, or mocking my weaknesses. And accompanying them were ze chirping songs of summer crickets, some of who were fluttering around our boat, made of ze strongest reinforced wood around [Poppa had said], drawn undeniably to ze flounder surely near and beneath us, and to our light sweating odours zat was just breaking out. _

_Still, a scene out of a picture this was indeed. And despite ze lack of luck I'd been having with ze lakes flounder, ett was quite pleasant to be outside the Delmont Manor, and ze capital itself, for a while. _

_It was also then zat, in my mindful absentness, zat I felt a sharp tug on my rod._

_Ze fish had finally come to me, their delicate tastes surely wet for my water-drenched shrimps. _

"_Poppa!" I shouted, a buzz of excitement actually showing up in my voice [to my own surprise, again] as my small, timid hands fought to keep my rod, subtly shuddering now, as though eet'd suddenly gained a life of eet's own, from being whipped away. _

"_What is it son?" he mused tentatively, shifting a half-turn around in his seat to face me, though Poppa's eyes [and voice] clearly wanted to elude more 'oomph' than I was hearing, unless that was my imagining, of course._

"_Something's hooked Poppa! Something has hooked!" I exclaimed. Grinning like ze cream zat got in with tze cats. And something _had_ hooked itself, and was continuing to thrash wildly at the bait, hoping to both grab a free meal and escape my hooked attention. _

_But eet would not get away from me, not after all zat waiting about. And not with Poppa right here, now standing just behind me now, his large, warm hands steadying my shoulders as I tucked and reeled – mainly tugged, as ze reel wheel staved into my small hands – to prevent me from falling._

_Ze air around us now buzzing with anticipation [or was that just the crickets and flies?]. _

"_Antoine, you can do it. Now pull like you'll never pulled before!" Poppa encouraged gently, yet with a stern bravado edge. And so I tugged harder, feeling my blood rushing to my head as I as I did so through gritting teeth. Trying to ignore my sweating hands [and most of all my tamed brows and hair locks, also damp], as I succeeded in inching ze hooked flounder further toward Poppa and me. And with this distance closing, and with a mightiest pull, I lifted my rod with a swift motion out of ze lake and over my head. _

_Only for my crowning glory, a small, maybe medium-sized silver flounder, to go flying clean off ze hook and go plopping back into ze waters – zat ruddy shrimp included!_

"_Non..." I drawled up in a moan, wanting no one than to curl up away from the light, and especially from the sight of my Poppa whom I'd now failed once again. I was listening not to whatever he was saying right then [I didn't need to hear zat I was a failure from him when I was already awares]. I really was no good at _anything_, I was thinking. _

_And in that space of a moment, I was such not thinking about my footing, and so with a high-pitching scream, I stumbled into the watery depths. _

_Now, me and ze water had never made formal acquaintances [outside of bath time, and while we had a large tub, eet still wasn't one really for swimming underneath], so all this much of eet surrounding me was a new feeling to be had, if I was being honest [which I was]._

_But though I had shut my eyes quickly, I had not sunken to the bottom like the bad pirates ship did in some of my bedtime stories at the end, for instead, as though I was being a puppet with strings at my back [like at ze big building for shows in the city], my legs and arms were swishing around._

_At first this left me wondering, but then I got eet – I was swimming, with my eyes closed mind, but still!_

_So, not knowing which way was up, I let my body decide on zat decision, and with a few mere kicks I ascended to ze lakes surface. Upon doing thus, I was immediately covered with a large towel, which was further pressed against my soaked skin by a warm [but shuddering] body. _

_Which I realised as I snuggled instinctively into this embrace, was zat of my Poppa himself, and he _wasn't_ shouting at me. In fact, I heard a slight chuckle in my ears, and then..._

"_My, my, son... I was quite surprised when you asked me to venture out here you know," he admitted to me, the tone in Poppa's voice now with a slice of tenderness alongside his strong, prideful one. _

_I still was biting down on my lip however, and so said nothing. "But it looks as though there are other talents you should pursue, oui?" he said with a wicked grin, before chuckling again. And this time, I joined in._

_/END FLASHBACK_

* * *

**STATION SQUARE RUINS / UNDERWATER / 18: 11 PM**

_[NARRATOR'S POV]_

Antoine awoke with a start. And the coyote had a moment of disorientation before he realised that he hadn't been sleeping at all, and that the murky, chilly waters was both revitalising and sapping his strength away.

_I have to do this fast_, he deadpanned, all the while trying to shake off the darkness that threatened to bleed into what little he could make out in these depths. Together with his comrades, the only real friends he'd ever made in his life, they had defeated Chaos just the day before. Or so they'd hoped.

And as the darkness continued to eclipse his visual senses, Antoine felt a sinking weight began to take shape in his stomach – but it was not [entirely] due to the pressures of water on the body, oh no, it was the tense-laced fear that he and the child were both going to die down here.

Antoine's grave would surely read 'Tried to be a hero, but failed when it mattered most' – his family name would be shamed forevermore – something that would bring tears to the coyote's face, were he not underwater and running on what adrenaline he had left before the scythe came down...

This moment in time was probably the only one that Antoine consciously admitted that he wished he had even a small cup of Sonic's unfeasible courage, for whilst at times, beyond reckless in the coyote's eyes, the cobalt teen always brought results home to the team.

But Antoine was not Sonic the Hedgehog, and that was made clearly apparent by his manner around him. He had always arrogantly considered himself superior to the cobalt hero, but he'd always played fair in his mocking of the blue blur.

Why then couldn't he beat Sonic [especially for capturing Sally's hand]? Why had he always lost, and what did that mean for him regarding his place in the Freedom Fighters?

And yet, despite the circular pattern of action that bound him from being the fine soldier he wanted to be, here Antoine was – the piping foeel, the laughing stock of the village [the coyote knew they did it behind his back], not Sonic, Sally, Rotor or Bunnie – putting his life on the line for a child who'd simply been one of thousands in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

_Hmm... what is zat?_ The young man mused to himself, as a dangling silhouette came into view just below him.

It was the ginger faired kid, and Antoine didn't need to have a doctrine in health & medicine to know that the lack of movement meant that the window of time between unconsciousness and the final curtain call was gaining speed, like a horse and carriage down a hillside, with every passing moment.

So, drawing on his somewhat rusty swimming abilities, the soldier in-training kicked against the harrowing motion of the living ocean towards the young kid, Dan, who was falling ever closer to the newly laid seabed, now a junkyard of rubble and debris.

Antoine again ignored the spreading recesses of darkness in his head, and the dizziness it was seeping into his conscious state, and stroked and kicked harder. If the kid landed amongst all that, then all hope would be lost.

Seconds later, an arm coated with blue and red, and adored with the Mercian arms symbol, tugged on the collar of young Dan's light blue t-shirt and whisked him out of harm's way.

Now the duo [or simply Antoine, in this case] had less than a minute to breach the surface before their final expenditure of energy was forced onto them.

So with the stakes raised, Antoine wrapped Dan around his chest and thrusted himself to the surface in a flurry of valor and fear.

But then it happened.

A tremendous fiery of light and force filled the coyote's eyes, almost making him gasp, an action that would've been most fatal in these watery depths. It was like an explosion, his track of thought had time to voice before the living ocean around them shifted imperceptibly, slamming them to the sidelines. Or so it felt [Antoine had no idea which side up they were now].

But it also felt as though they were descending as well [be it just Antoine's stomach at this point], like a balloon with little helium left. The Freedom Fighter bit his lip, feeling the dizzy sensation of dropping in an elevator.

The world had just started to go black when a shiver of a feeling bleached across Antoine's short furred skin. It added a colder sheen to his features, in particular because of the slight breeze that caressed his tired face. _Wait..._ the young man spewed, jolting him awake and staving off the temptation of sleep just a little while longer, as though he was a record track that was no longer skipping in time. _If there's wind here, then that means we did it... We've reached the surface!_

Whatever that fiery of force had been, it'd probably saved their bacons, as Antoine wouldn't admit later on. But at this time he didn't get a chance to for first, the light was dazzling, and then a strong, feminine holler reached his eardrums. And from the relief in it, she [whenever _she_ was, the world felt a little elastic, topsy turvy-like to Antoine at this moment], was half-convinced that he'd suffered a heart attack from the cold plunge.

In contrast to this, the coyote was a little surprised to see that it was Bunnie ploughing through the body of water towards him. So much so that he almost wondered if she cared that much, something that had never crossed his mind before; as he recalled anyway...

By the time the southern Freedom Fighter had reached them both though, Antoine had shook his head clear of that thought [along with the water that'd infiltrated his ears], awakening to the 'obvious' reason to why his comrade was so worried: Bunnie was worried about the kid as much as him. There was nothing else to his former trail of thought as all, as pleasant as it may have been to explore deeper...

"Antoine, are you okay?"Bunnie fretted feeling his forehead, neck, arms and hands for any mortal injuries [there was none], whilst at the same time straddling one half of the unconscious, but alive, little boy over her capable shoulders.

"Oui, oui," he murmured, a look of joyous relief chiseled across his face. "I did eet..." Antoine continued on. "I actually did eet..."

Bunnie tilted her head to the side for a moment before realisation settled into its burrow, but instead of expressing it out loud, and possibly ruining his moment of triumph, she instead said.

"I'm just glad you're safe," the similarly aged Freedom Fighter gestured boldly. A pause. "That you're both safe."

"Merci Bunnie, for we will both be appreciating this," Antoine gratefully agreed with a smile, which was pleasantly returned from Bunnie as she towed the two back to land and back to safety.

* * *

**STATION SQUARE RUINS / CENTRAL BAY / 18: 08 PM**

The cloud covered skies were now settling into the blue gray that preceded the blank canvas of night, and were now periodic spectators to colossal rumbles, flashing lights and tornado-looking energy blasts from below, which ignited the heavens with golden crimson.

And other witnesses to this climatic showdown were the Station Square survivors of this supernatural tsunami, agents to the President and, of course, the Freedom Fighters, the later whom had done all they could to help [and who at this moment were still awaiting Knuckles' return] – rescuing the last of those in the living ocean – but for at least one of the resistance group, a lilac furred walrus, now left to his own devices, came a game of pondering. The dreaded 'what if' game.

_It looks like despite that earlier blow, we may just win this out_, Rotor thought, gazing hopefully up at the ongoing clash, Sally and the rest sitting next to and below him on the makeshift 'steps' that the crisscrossing road pieces made up, all of them wearing thick, gray blankets to help warm themselves up from their underwater ventures.

The young scientist sighed out loud before he could stop himself, but luckily for him it was drowned out as another shower of energy spewed out fiercely from Perfect Chaos' mouth. Super Sonic, however, was not again so easily flanked, and somersaulted to the side.

_All of this_, he continued, that hopeful expression sagging into one of a frown. _Were we the cause to this effect?_ _I mean, what reason would Chaos have had to stick around were it not for Robotnik [at first] and us?_ Rotor didn't doubt for a moment that in this alternative scenario, that Chaos wouldn't have strived to become 'Perfect' again [and succeeding], and in that case, at least the Great Forest, maybe even Robotropolis, would've faced its onslaught, but... _Surely it would've as bad as it is here...?_

The frown remained where it was on the walrus's features, as he inwardly berated himself for that _ridiculous_ sentiment. For if the Great Forest had met Perfect Chaos' wrath then it would've been washed clear off of South Island, permanently. As a believer in science, Rotor wasn't one to whole heartily believe in luck [as comforting as that that'd probably be otherwise]; like the old saying goes; _hope for the best, but expect the worst._ If nothing else, he'd come to the realisation that he was probably a realist, something that he hoped wouldn't put him at loggerheads with the others, in particular his pal Sonic, in the future.

_Either way, someone's home was gonna be wrecked_, Rotor admitted. _And as glad as I am that it _wasn't_ the Great Forest_, he paused, guilt staining his heart as this truthful, though debatable slice of selfish settled in, _I still wish that we could've done more to prevent this. We shouldn't have... failed._

And like an iceberg fracturing and sinking into the frosty ocean, there it was. That word again.

_Mom... Skeeter..._ Rotor lamented, and like an aching stomach [per say example, when one has food poisoning] recalled the last time he'd visited the Northern Tundra en-route to its capital of Iceborough, in order to see his family. Or what remained of it anyway, his father, Sherman, having met a grisly end during the Great War. _I wonder how they are_– he begun, and then stopped that strand of thought, almost wanting to kick himself for thinking such.

For on this last visit many months ago, not long after Amy's abrupt departure from Knothole Village, the Freedom Fighter, using the solo submarine he'd christened the 'Bathysphere' as transport, he had been met with a desolate plateau of ice [despite having radioed ahead that he would be coming to visit for the first time in, well, a long time].

At first he'd thought the bleak silence an inevitable result of another Orca attack, and that those capable were combating them off underwater, but the truth had been far worse to swallow, something akin to an ice pick to the eyes.

For the sound of hollow growls broke that silence a second later and then, as if dropped off by a passing mirage, his herd had surrounded him, their glazed, crimson eyes boring into his skull as they stood there like living dolls. Their will bound now only to Robotnik's strings.

After that, well... he'd made it out of there with help from the Arctic Freedom Fighter group [before they were then captured], and vowed to return and free them from Robotnik's control.

_Why then have I not returned as I'd sworn?_ Rotor sullenly asked of himself. Yes, the fact he'd failed had been a burden on his heart for a long while afterwards, but he'd let it had its day as he dallied in his workshop lab and then got on with things. He'd reined in that self-pitying flame and turned its relinquishment into working drive, so, if not that then what else did Rotor the Walrus have to fear?

Looking up at his friend Sonic do battle, wherein he and the others could not, had helped topple those nagging blocks clouding his mind, in particular the areas that dealt with emotions.

Rotor's escapade to the Northern Tundra you see, despite not having started out as an active mission, had been down under the cloak of six o'clock AM without notifying anyone of his intentions.

In these months thereafter the young man had felt another feeling embedded in his heart alongside the mixed emotions that typically follow [and hereby define] the notion of failure, and one that only grew just out of conscious reach as time had fluttered on by, and that feeling was... _recklessness_.

_I... just had that spontaneous _desire_, I suppose, to do something different from my usual routine [which I'd cemented all of my own – Sally and the others had brought up my overworking in the past before]_, Rotor thought through slowly, before sighing inwardly as he remembered what had transpired because of this spontaneous action, which was something that seemed to work [most of the time] in Sonic's favour, at least.

It was perhaps it was that [then] unconscious realisation that made had made him back off of thinking about returning to the Northern Tundra, feeling the need to stand back and think about things for a bit before pursuing things further. Not that Rotor needed help with doing that. Life soon became busy enough between the ongoing fight with Robotnik [now a team member down] and his own scientific endeavors, both Freedom Fighter and personal oriented...

And all around him, the other Freedom Fighters were debating similar notions about their presence here within themselves, and playing the 'what if' game.

The game where no one came out mentally unscathed, nor with any factual answers.

* * *

**STATION SQUARE RUINS / CENTRAL BAY / 18: 15 PM**

As the small-knit group had passed through the city ruins, through and over the devastation, its leading head, Amy Rose, had been mesmerised by the new [good] Super Sonic. To her, the golden hedgehog was like a shooting star, but instead of just one person, he was focusing on making all of their wishes come true – an end to this conflict, whatever that might entail.

It was for partly this reason that as the group reunited with the Freedom Fighters, the middle child of the Worthington family, Lisa, a slightly tanned eleven year old with short, black hair not quite far off from the heart of pink furred hedgehog, slowly walked away from the proceedings, having noticed someone standing away from everyone.

Momentarily dusting off her light blue dress, she then hesitantly made the first move.

"Hello there," she began meekly, gladly filling in the silence that had fallen across Amy and the others since they left their apartment building. The figure, having formally been lost in their thoughts, now directed their sky blue irises on her, ones tinged with gentle curiosity. "You're Miss Tikal, right?"

"Yes, that is correct little one," the peach-coloured echidna spirit informed with a small, somewhat forced smile. And being an inquisitive social fly, Lisa was quick to note this. "Tikal, why are you standing here all by yourself, if you don't mind my asking," she related reluctantly, fidgeting via slipping her hands in her pockets and her earth-coloured pools downcast.

A moment occurred, in which time Tikal pressed her lips into a near straight line, as a concoction of emotions were forced to the surface. It was one of the thought threads she'd been thinking about before Lisa had appeared undoubtedly, but to express it out loud, and to a complete stranger, the former shrine priestess wasn't sure she could do it...

_But then, she _is_ a complete stranger_, she mused silently, and so after an inward sigh, Tikal spoke, her tone now relished with a sombre, yet calm edge.

"I am just waiting, for either my friend to live or die..." A pause. "And whichever outcome come to pass, I must return to the other world soon." At this the spirit girl gave Lisa a small, honest smile, knowing that, yes, destiny could be harsh, but it was meaningful, _fluidic_, all the same, so she wouldn't worry about what may come, or wish that things had gone differently.

Tikal had experienced thousands of years sealed in the Master Emerald, so she'd done her fair grieving and despair, as well as wishing. Now, whatever happened, happened, she'd leave this mortal plane for good.

"I'm sorry," Lisa whispered sadly, having been told of Tikal and Chaos' story from Amy earlier, and not really knowing what else to add to that. It was nothing like the unexpected deaths of her and Amber's parents; it was a totally different experience. And so she left the former shrine priestess to her thoughts and rejoined the others with but one thought emerging, like a pair of reptilian eyes peering out of a misty swamp, in her mind.

_I just hope that the best thing for all of us comes to be... _

It was then that the explosion shook what remained of the city's foundations, and all thoughts ceased as the grey clouds above burst open into a deluge symphony.

* * *

Around thirty seconds or so of confusion [and a dozen buildings self-demolishing themselves] later, in which time an "Ok, time out! What the heck was that?" Sonic howled over the communicator just as he backhanded some of Perfect Chaos' tentacles, and the world exploded in a massive flux of fiery light.

This momentary period of _déjà vu_, i.e. from the last few minutes on the Egg Carrier, passed just as quickly as the white luminance slipped into deep emerald, and the world flow back into being.

In the blast's epicentre, the crimson Guardian lay motionless, his emerald shard necklace shining dimly, but if not a trick of the continuing dazzling lightshow above them, Knuckles looked only mildly scarred by whatever had occurred. Still, he _had_ been in the middle of an ignited explosion; the body was still smoking.

"Oh no..." Sally breathed out. _What in the Sources' name had happened down there?_

And a few feet away and nearer the debris' edge, Tikal's face had instantly grimaced into a portrait of dumb stricken horror. She was trying her hardest to catch her breath [even though spirits didn't even need to breathe, but someone might put that down as something akin to the phenomena, _Phantom Limbs_], but it felt hard to breathe, as though stone walls were hastily closing in.

_Knuckles... I just don't know... what's going on here_, Tikal echoed, her vision threatening to spill into dizziness at all these emotions, like a tornado, seemingly humming against the side of her head.

"He's going to be okay Tikal," came a warm, reassuring voice, like the first spring breeze after a rain storm. Tikal almost jumped in fright at the suddenness, but had in turn whirled around enough to see who'd spoken. It was a woman [definitely a few years older than she had been when she'd...] with deep auburn hair, short and straightened, and small, green eyes that looked as though they were hiding just out of sight. _Of course, she might just be tired. It looks like Lisa, her and the little boy, are a family, and this... disaster... did come out of nowhere_, Tikal frowned, still not liking the threads of knots, of guilt, that was gleefully harvesting itself within her heart.

For even the spirit girl hadn't been aware of Chaos' continued presence in the world until her premonition had been ordained to the Freedom Fighters within one of the ancient Echidnaopolis temples a few hours ago. And that both worried and disturbed Tikal.

_Was this but a simple measure of the gathered Chaos Emeralds' power? _

The spirit girl sensed that she had more to say, so remained where she stood, letting idle hands cross across her chest, her sky blue pools indescribable.

"They can all take care of themselves," the woman stated boldly, and were Tikal aware of the redhead's connection with Amy Rose, she would've greatly understood her solid resolve. "They've lived through years of war against that human tyrant, Doctor Robotnik, after all."

That name bore no real recognition to Tikal, only knowing him as the one who'd freed Chaos [and her] from the Master Emerald days before from the fleeting encounters with the Freedom Fighters [and two others] she'd enacted. She thanked the woman regardless, and as the redhead's gaze moved from her and over to her kin, the former shrine priestess gave the woman an approving look for her composure. _Goodness knows what peril they'd faced to get to us here._

Though that said, in the short interval they'd communicated, of her earlier analysis Tikal could not be sure, but it looked like the woman known as Amber Worthington had some sad, deep thoughts behind her cheerful vestige as well...

And so, now alone again, Tikal went back to thinking, her thoughts almost instantly slipping to Knuckles, a 'fork in the path' in what she'd imagined would simply end where it'd begun; her and Chaos sealed away again, forever most likely. But it seemed not to be... why?

_I don't even know you... do I?_ And with that thought given a lease of life [if but within her own spiritual mind], it was then that Tikal tried to coo back just what the terms of the sealing incantation had been... Not to mention wondering just what fate the gods would bestow upon Chaos, her... and the growing enigma that was Knuckles.

* * *

"Don't ya worry Knuckles hun, I'm gonna hurler you outta there in no time at all," declared Bunnie smoothly, screening out the noise from the continuing brawl above, and preparing to dive into the waters to, in her own words, 'hurler' him out of harm's way. Though, admittedly, the lithe rabbit, despite now just a little over eighteen years of age, didn't have as much experience as her fellow Freedom comrade[...] in the ways of swimming, having always preferred to use other methods of transport, be it her well-walked feet or whatever else, instead. No phobia of the wet stuff; just because really.

And so forming an arc shape with her body, the gutsy Freedom Fighter proceeded to dive in to save the crimson Guardian when...

"Bunnie, wait a sec!" related a cautious voice, Rotor, and meeting his face with a confused expression, the walrus pointed out something that'd appeared in the waters ahead. It was a cast and line which led to an orange and red floating buoy, resident of one large purple feline whom Knuckles [and Tikal] both knew as Big.

Still in surprise, the gang noticed a medium sized green Frog perched on the newcomers' shoulder, just as said person reeled Knuckles safely into his buoy.

"Well I'll be darned..." breathed a relieved and bemused Bunnie, a small smirk lightening up her face. "First that little tyke and now this big ol' darlin', I'd say Knuckles has been working on his friendship-making skills eh, Sally girl?"

"Looks like you're right there Bunnie," Sally beamed, allowing herself the light relief of laughter before breaking into a speedy stride, companions side by side.

"Heyyyyy there!" Big waved happily to them all; and in polite earnest they returned it [though not with as much gusto as he was putting in]. "Don't worry about Knuckles, I've got him, I do!"

Though as everyone crowded around to help their friend and his rescuer ashore, the fair-skinned, black spiky-haired boy of freshly ten, Zack Worthington, was experiencing what he'd later describe as a drill in his head as the chaos energy-radiating guardian came ever closer...

* * *

**STATION SQUARE RUINS / CENTRAL BAY / 18: 23 PM**

_[SONIC'S POV]_

_Knuckles, man, not that I don't commend volunteering for this 'underground mission' or anything, but, really, what possessed you to do so...? To be blunt, you've never been so unreserved when it comes to new people it seems these last few days, but why this change now?_

Those were my initial thoughts from what hazes of voices filtered through periodically on my communicator, still hanging unfazed by the watery plunge and the battle itself on one of my back spines. But between skating the air with pro skills and making more frontal assaults on Chaos himself, I'd had no real low time to chime in my thoughts, and the Knucklehead had already left by the time I could've [and by then it sounded as though Ant had slipped on his 'heroing' boots again, something I knew that Sal and the others would require their full attention on once he needed saving].

And now I was glad I hadn't voiced those initial musings [not least because Sally _would_ be right in mocking what brain I ended up with], because my muddy thoughts spewed at me the fact that it had only been this morning that my friend had discovered Chaos was the one that'd wiped his race off the face of Mobius thousands of years ago – that'd struck a needle jab of unreasonable guilt into me, and I didn't like needles.

"Whoa!" I exclaimed like a bull tamer from the _Madreña_ region, as I avoided another stabbing jab from a pair of tentacles as I made my way towards their master.

And acknowledging Chaos again also made me wonder [though not too much, as it just isn't my thing] just how Knuckles came to live in the present day, but as soon as it'd came I flicked that thought away swiftly. I mean no matter what had happened it wasn't gonna change how I felt about my friend [and sometimes rival], so why glue myself down with such thoughts?

I'll be honest though, as the raging waters flurried up in my face as Perfect Chaos' sneering snout [and fangs] sought me out [which made me hope dearly that he wouldn't _sneeze_ at me now], it was kind of plain to see that I hadn't made much progress in wearing him down.

_Since the crimson avenger had returned though..._ I chuckled inwardly. Okay, okay, a bit harsh I know considering the guy was a little smoked, from what peeks I could sneak in from my current situation... but it looked as though whatever Knuckles had pulled off down there had irked Perfect Chaos somewhat, for his attacks had lessened in ferocity and now, spiralling up the watery monster's body, I noted that even Chaos primal gaze looked a little faded.

Unfortunately in the last few minutes, like the proud chime of a grandfather clock, the chaos energy that I'd tapped into was already beginning to seem out of me, its sparkly golden dust-like quality lightly peppering the air, debris and sea below.

_I have to finish this now_, I noted determinately. _Not least because Knuckles would've got hurt all for nothing, but once I transform back into my cool blue self then I'm gonna be feeling the wounds I've scrapped up here. And that will be no– _

It was then that my ears heard it.

Despite the underground explosion and further damage to the city, those that could were actually cheering me on to win, their faithful hearts, for a time, beating as one.

_Whoa..._ I mused in wonder, a smirk sliding smoothly onto my face. _Never knew I was so popular. Heh_.

And although it did not magically replenish my energy reserves, the positive sentiments did serve to focus my will [and heart] into determination, the kind I felt that could only be matched by a lion's roar in prowess.

So with not a sarcastic comment in sight, I raced again towards Perfect Chaos, who looked to have given up on the energy blasts and instead was flinging the increasingly _boring_[!] multitudes of water tornados at me again from his cosy slump of a tower. Though this said, its continuous primal roars ringing in my delicate ears indicated quite profoundly that it was still very, very ticked off with yours truly.

But I don't live off anger, and not to risk sounding merrily cliché, but just one look into the eyes of my friends, with depth that rivalled the oncoming starry night, of anyone around here, gave me everything I ever needed.

Trust.

Love.

Friendship.

I sighed inwardly as I came to a momentarily halt in front of Chaos himself, who looked at me in what I can only assume [sorry Sal... oh, _and_ Uncle Chuck] was of the questioning kind.

_It's a shame that you never experienced these things; just because you're a whole 'water god' and all doesn't mean that you shouldn't have._ A slight sombre smile etched its way onto my face, as I also remembered the last conversation I'd had with Tikal, possibly Chaos' only friend, and as time seemed to slow down around me.

_FLASHBACK_

"_My heart has always been in the Master Emerald along with Chaos'," the former shrine priestess said stated. "Now he's filled with anger and sadness. And if it goes on," she paused, "he'll eventually destroy the world, like he tried to before!"_

_Tikal's face had now become a mask of painful sorrow, which was only further emphasised in the declared tone she spoke in next. "He must be sealed in the Master Emerald, NOW!"_

"_How can that help?" Sonic spoke up in spite of himself; this sudden mild act of concern for one who'd caused so much devastation catching even himself a little off guard. So much so, that he paused whilst he allowed his mind to drink in this new feeling, to define it, before speaking again, the hedgehog's tone more sagely now. "It won't change how he feels inside, will it? His heart will still remain in turmoil and his anger just won't vanish! He'll just be trapped forever!"_

_/END FLASHBACK_

_You'd said 'What choice do we have?'_ I thought, the memory seeping to the surface like tiny bubbles to the water's surface. _And I agree it may not look like we have one, but we do, we _all_ do, just like I choose to risk becoming Super Sonic again. _

I sighed. _Still, I wish we'd met under better circumstances, both of you..._ was my concluding thought before I took action.

* * *

_*Play Sonic Adventure – Open Your Heart*_

Time seemed to sped back up, and in that moment I was all too aware of the searing, majestic-rainbow hued heat that was preparing to exit the serrated jaws of Perfect Chaos right in front of me.

So on a whim, and focusing on that 'lion heart' akin strength that the continuing [and if it were possible, louder] cheering gave me, I flared upward and in the blink of an eye, I pile-drived down [and through] Chaos' elongated head and into his brain. Cue a flurry of water into the makeshift sea below.

Zipping backwards to scout out his next spawn location, I noticed quite quickly that the surrounding air had changed slightly. That it was, I don't know, less intense than before? Another second rolled on by. _Calmer, that's it_, I thought, cupping my chin thoughtfully.

_I wonder... No. It couldn't be... could it?_ And then that stray of thought was gone.

Perfect Chaos was reforming on the other side of the bay, albeit a bit slower than usual, over what appeared to Station Square's [former] train station. And if the wind wasn't playing tricks on me, its breathing, which up until now had been steady, was now verging on strenuous.

_Maybe Tails _was_ right._

But that candle flame of hope was gonna have to take a backseat, for my watery foe, despite whatever limit he had reached [or was reaching], had now pulled out on the stops to end our conflict, as all at once Chaos summoned water tornados, spat out another energy beam and thrusted those tricky tentacles my way. This served to light up the dusk sky in a hellish blaze of rainbow haze.

"Mental note…do not monologue while in the middle of a fight. Especially when there's a big, ugly water monster roaring at your front door…" I said to myself, as I also realised that my new form had already begun to sweat, which meant I had minutes to spare before I fell from the sky and to a watery grave.

But I was ready for him, as I burst forward and down to skim the water's surface, swatting away his extended arms in rapid succession as I did so.

Next up were the tornados and energy beam, a shocking storm that I did _not_ want to get caught up in, so in a figure of eight-like motion I swerved in and out of the roaring spires, pulling up tightly to climb the air and avoid that energy beam.

My flesh gave a cry of pain as the air was slammed out of my lungs, like I'd been body slammed by a wrestler [a _real_ one, mind you]. And the force of the darn thing threw me right on through a nearby building, evoking screams of surprise [and fear] from the few still trying to find a way out, sending glass, metal, and concrete flying in all directions. As if to add insult to injury the abrupt impact shook out of its indentation a ceiling lamp, which then fell onto my head sizzling and crackling momentarily before jumping away from me.

I groaned in exasperation. _Also, not a fan of energy beams..._

But getting briskly to my feet and brushing myself down [my spines were fine and all accounted for, thankfully!], it was then that my crimson-stained right hand, its glove dirtied and torn almost asunder, revealed to me the cut that I'd [at least] sustained on my right cheek.

_Blood, huh. _ I thought, my breathing nearing ragged proportions. _Well ain't I gonna have a _fun_ day at Dr Quack's place when we get home. Laying down and doing nothing for hours, maybe even _days_, just isn't this blue [sometimes golden] blur's style. No soirée. _

Thought despite this takedown I'd received [and the possibility of hospitalisation for injuries as yet unknown], oddly enough I still remained in good spirits. It was as if this fight were _invigorating_ me, on another level, in some way that had nothing to do with my physical condition. I could already see Sal shaking her head in disbelief at the precarious notion, but I'm sure Knuckles would understand – he had a great fighting, no, _warrior_ spirit in him – I thought gladly as I rocketed out just in time to, on reflex and with a mocking yawn, slice through [karate-style] another siege of tentacles.

_If I didn't know better, I'd say the 'Big Drip' was a big fan of those cheap, horror films, ya know, the ones with the aliens [or worse, _sea creatures,_ or a _Castle Robotnik_ flick]. They all loved their extra limbs [the better to throttle you with dear]! _

I let one chuckle escape as Perfect Chaos came back into view, re-appearing a few feet ahead, his deep, slime green eyes filled with murderous intent. And this time I didn't let him get one growl [or attack] in edgeways floating just above the water, I curled myself into a Spindash attack [super-charged!] which trailed up the watery body like a streak of white light, and was rewarded with a resounding firework-like explosion of matter.

The air, again feeling lighter, was pierced by a howl, like a lonely wolf. And it was then that I sensed that the end was near, for Perfect Chaos and my Super form [if Sal was here, I'd wager a minute, two tops].

_Now I just gotta find the slippery beast... Ah! _

But before I could reach him, the water beast kept on warping further and further away. It looked like he too knew that we had started the final countdown; the next blow would spell out the winner for the whole city over. _And it's going to be me._ Another warp. _If I could even reach him!_

Perfect Chaos _had_ become slower though, and it was a few more precious seconds later that I then saw a glimmer of light to his method of madness; he'd reform away from him, yes, but Tikal's kindred friend would always try and get closer, back to the ruins of the Station Square Tower. But what was there? I wondered confusingly. Perhaps _trying to drain some energy source?_ No matter what it was, I had an angle now, and one that intended to exploit.

So, naturally, I bought out my repertoire of insult smarts, whistling at Perfect Chaos to get his attention before whaling it on him.

"I'm waiiiiting!" which I followed up smoothly with a "Come and get me, bub!". He roared his... approval[?] right in my face, making my ears ring for a few seconds.

Using the wrathful cloud of energy beams and tornados that proceeded this as my cover, however, I was able to spring up in front of that large, snobby snout and surprise the watery beast into an abrupt retreat – but with our now close proximity to it, there was no doubt _where_ he'd go [even if, judging by his rapidly decreasing speed and prowess, that it wasn't juicin' him up very well, if at all].

So at supersonic speed with a rush of extra added juice, which swiftly sent a pounding jolt to my head, I shoot across that remaining few feet like a shooting star and right, as luck would have it, at the height of Perfect Chaos' reforming.

I saw only a flash of white malice cross his eyes before I broke through that watery hide, feeling all at once the positive chaos energy, intermingled with that which lay in my heart [helped by those faithful cheers], combine into one surging attack, an almost inverse of how I'd felt upon _receiving_ said chaos energy.

And then both positive and negative energies met around Perfect Chaos' core, creating an explosion of white light akin to an exploding sun, that filled entire city, maybe even the _world _[or so it seemed].

But no one had a second to think or grab onto anything to avoid the heralding winds before, like the final slurp of a draining water basin, our world folded out of existence, leaving only that daunting white light, which sounded not akin to small splashes of water...

Ultimately though, it was all over.

But at what cost...?

* * *

_[NARRATOR'S POV]_

No one was able to put down precisely just when the final blow had been dealt, not least because everyone who still had a pulse had naturally been too busy watching the battle to care [and who would've been keeping the _minutes_ instead?], but because the sheer abundance of chaos energy [a foreign deity to this city just days prior] had caused a mini electromagnetic pulse, halting all electronic clocks in a ten mile radius from the offset.

However, in the days to follow the President, as well as the [remaining] media groups in the region [and those, unsurprisingly, from neighbouring kingdoms], under careful scorn from G.U.N. regarding the specifics of the write-ups, would time code the 'liberation' of Station Square as dealt at **18: 36** hours. Something that would remain in _New Station Square_ records for years to come.

* * *

**STATION SQUARE RUINS / CENTRAL BAY / 18: 41 PM**

In the wake of Perfect Chaos' defeat and the fading of that indescribable light, those that had bared witness to it were astounded to see that its bay of water had all but vanished [except for a few gushing streams flowing down from a handful of buildings over the city], and not only that, but even in these final moments of dusk, the sky was [temporarily] lit up almost as light blue as that of daytime.

Such was to be the case for the next hour, something that Rotor and the scientists at G.U.N. would later put down as 'a temporal light source made up of the excess chaos energy unleashed in the final blow into the atmosphere'.

But more importantly after this light had ceased, all eyes, in particular those of the huddled Freedom Fighters were fixed to the sky where a golden garbed figure was now slowly floating down towards them with seven coloured emeralds in tow behind him.

Seconds later, the exhausted body of Sonic the Hedgehog was ejected smoothly from the golden blanket of chaos energy and laid on the ground, now his cerulean blue self again. The seven Chaos Emeralds scattered around him like spoils of a contest of strength well won, in turn bringing close attention to the battered, bloodied state his body was marred with.

Sally, with Amy and the others in close proximity, bit down on her bottom lip to keep the tears that threatened to run contained. Not that the Princess wanted to remain unemotional in the possible case of worse scenario, but a shrewd hide of denial, combined with the stubborn part of her personality refused to give the reckless, albeit hero of the hour, the satisfaction of winding her up, yet.

But against her head's wishes and before Rotor could check his vitals, the leader of the Freedom Fighters had already knelt down besides the 'no good lazy bum' [her own words from the day this had all begun, in what had been just another proposed day of organising strikes against the Robotnik Empire in the sanctuary of Knothole Village], her hands shaking slightly as she tenderly cupped Sonic's bloodied right cheek.

_He's so motionless..._ Sally whispered to herself, as that shield of denial was gently gnawed upon by the fearful worm deep in the pit of her stomach. _And that's just wrong. No matter how much I may yell at him for oversleeping or never sitting still, this is just oh so _wrong_!_

A hoarse groan pulled her from those thoughts. What had before been crimson pools were now dulled emerald green, looking fleeting up at her, their tone indescribable. And it was then that Sally [as well as a nearby Amy] let go of the breath that she didn't know she'd been holding.

"Hey, how are you?" she asked him with a small smile. Only to be met with a raised eyebrow.

She frowned. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing Sal," the cerulean blue hero stated tiredly before flashing an agonising grin. "Or maybe so..." he trailed off. "As you're usually snapping at me by now."

The Princesses' eyes rose slightly at this, not knowing at first how to take this snide remark before a blur of pink rushed by her, almost knocking Sally off of her boots clad feet.

"Oh Sonic! Sonic you're alright!" came the unsurprisingly wail of Amy Rose as she hugged the blue blur fiercely.

"I wouldn't aggravate his–" Rotor and Tails began worriedly.

"Ooouchies..." Sonic moaned, tensing up in mild pain.

"–injuries..." the pair finished.

Aware of the dozen eyes now glancing her way, the young hedgehog let go of Sonic and stepped aside. "Oops. Sorry... force of habitat I guess," Amy chuckled sheepishly.

The Freedom Fighters [Sonic included] and the Worthington's laughed at this.

Throughout this, Sally's had been keeping a sharp eye on the cerculean blue hero, mulling things over in her head. And when he'd laughed [albeit not as hard as his usual], she'd noted the twinkle in his eyes again. It was then she knew that he'd be fine. They'd just have to keep him in bed for a few days.

_Those are going to be some trying days..._ Sally half-groaned, half-chuckled in her thoughts, before making good on a response to the day's hero as she, Tails and Bunnie helped load him onto a doctor's stretcher, recalling their recent caper in the Ice Cap Zone where Sonic had both called her reckless _and_ ended up saving her life .

"Well, every hero deserves his due, Sonic, even you," she said warmly, squeezing his hand for luck. Sally was about head off to keep an eye on him never the same when a scream sliced through the untroubled air, causing her to whirl around instinctively. _Though wasn't the battle done?_

"**S**acré bleu'**, the m-monstre is l-living!**" Antoine squealed, pointing erratically away from the group.

And to everyone's shock, just a few feet away from them kneeling in a puddle of its own making, was Chaos in his original 'Zero' base form, whose cylindrical green eyes bore into theirs apathetically.

"Alright creep, it's time for _me_ to dance it out with you I see!" hollered an angry bat, Rouge, preparing to propel herself forward utilising the strength of her well-trained body with her left heel, before her G.U.N. partner, Topaz, could stop her.

For good or bad, the agent never made it off the ground as a single hand briefly gave her shoulder a soft, reassuring squeeze, halting her action.

And as Tikal made a collected stride forward, her sky blue eyes pricked with tears and her lips curled into a joyful smile, Rouge was left with a spacey head, as though filled with mist, for the next few minutes; the slightest will of the spirit priestess having defused the tense situation and her anger all in one go. It certainly both jaw dropped and bemused Topaz, and a certain rabbit Freedom Fighter at the very least.

But after this all eyes were certainly on Tikal and Chaos, especially a conscious but too-wounded-to-move Knuckles, wondering just what was going to happen next.

_*Play Sonic Adventure – Event: Goodbye!*_

A sprinkling of contained subtly sparkling rain coincided with the arrival of a five group of the small, cuddly aqua and yellow tinted creatures called Chao – infamous for their tear-dropped structured heads as well as their ability to adapt their DNA with any animal they touch – who then cooed and sang an un-interpretable verse to the tall, water god.

Stepping in line beside him Tikal then spoke up, and if they weren't mistaken, those gathered could've sworn they'd seen Chaos' eyes soften as the Chao paraded merrily around his feet.

"These are the Chao you were protecting. They stayed alive for generations and now live peacefully with Mobians and Humans. The fighting's over. Harmony's restored, and life goes on," the spirit girl chorused jubilantly, before turning to the Freedom Fighters, among them Big the Cat, Rouge, Topaz, and a little ways off, some G.U.N. personnel who were tending to the rescued, as well as certain blue hedgehog.

"Thank you so much!" she bowed.

"It looks like Chaos has changed again. This time, for the better," came a rough, choke of a whisper from Knuckles, who with Big's help and against Sally and the others' best wishes, was attempting to stand up. Down a step, but within earshot, a young fox replied innocently.

"Yeah! Super Sonic must have neutralized it, so it's nice again!"

"That is correct friend," she nodded with a smile. "Chaos has now relinquished his anger and come to terms with what has transpired," she stated vivaciously. "But now we must bid you farewell. Good luck to you all!" she shouted wholeheartedly as she, Chaos and the Chao begun to slowly ascend into the azure-tinted sky.

And whilst some waved them goodbye, some, like Sally, were busy pondering. _Just what can we do to help restore this city, the donation of Mobiums aside?_

"What's up, Sal?" Sonic asked what he'd moments ago vocally dubbed his 'personal nurse' with all the tact of a self-appointed young ladies man. She'd playfully given him a light rap on the head for it.

"I was just thinking of how we could all help with the restoration effo– " the Princess begun, only to be interrupted.

"Whoa, it's a bit early for a celebratory lightshow ain't it?" Sonic muttered wanly, blanking out what she'd told him in response to his own question, and in a tone that suggested this was more to himself than anything, flecks of white flickering smoothly across his emerald pools.

"Huh? What?" Sally breathed in confusion, then... "Oh!"

Up in the sky Tikal, Chaos and the Chao had already become partially transparent, a sign they were ready to this mortal plane, when they ground to an unexpected halt.

But they would have no time to ponder this oddity as, from seemingly nowhere around them, a white light tinted with emerald streaks burst across their [and everyone else's] vision like cobwebs.

Seconds later, an unnatural scream cascaded down to earth, sending shivers down everyone's spine.

* * *

_*Play LOST – The Eyeland*_

The crimson Guardian, Knuckles, moments before the mass confusion had even transpired had been taking painful strides forward, despite his conscious awareness of his battered body, eager not to say 'goodbye' but 'will I ever see you again?' to the echidna girl spirit, Tikal.

_This can't be what the Master Emerald wanted me to see, it can't be..._ rang a mantra in his mind. Sure he'd learned of how his race had come to be wiped out, something that was going to take a long time to truly come to terms with, for he _had_ really believed they'd return from the stars one day [a notion that, oddly, seemed older than himself, for the Guardian couldn't remember when he'd drawn up that thought].

As Knuckles stumbled about in the tendrils of white and green light, blanking out all cries of his name from the others, his heart came to realise what his head did not [or refused to].

_These... aren't the answers I was hoping for_, the Guardian grudgingly admitted, hanging his head low, and resisting his knees' temptation to buckle and howl anguish to the heavens, to the fates that toyed with him so; bringing back a member of his race now like a carousel, only to be taken away from him once more, permanently.

The crimson Guardian didn't want to go back to the way things had been before. And whilst it wasn't entirely so, especially with the Freedom Fighters always willingly to lend him an ear [even when he was high up in the attitudes and miles away from them], the word that described his life pre-Robotnik [and now seemingly post-Chaos] was 'loneliness'. But at least it wasn't depression, loneliness was fine, it wouldn't interfere with his duty of guardian the Master Emerald, unlike that dreaded thing he'd learnt about in recent years called 'depression'.

Knuckles allowed those thoughts to fold, however, as his uncanny senses picked up something in the 'fog' surrounding him, something foreign and yet _familiar_ somehow. Whatever it was though, it was there one second and gone the next, as though its existence was fluctuating.

And so following his natural born Guardian instincts, he turned in the right direction in time to see a shadowy figure appear amidst the fog, and whilst it wasn't moving towards him it was moving rather erratically. Instinctively he primed his knuckle fists, readying himself for battle. His eyes narrowed dangerously as the fog swirled, half expecting the mysterious figure to be the one that had attempted to blow him up not so long ago…

And so when the white and green light parted like fog, after what seemed like an eternity, Knuckles was the first witness to an indescribable sight – one that would undoubtedly stay with him the rest of his life.

On the ground was a figure writhing in pain, its kneeling body covered with a thin, pure sheen, like liquid water, and the slightly cocked back head revealing eyes that were a reflection of madness or and pain in its purest form. Something which, if its incoherent mutterings were of any indication were probably closer to the truth than anyone would care to admit.

Upon closer inspection however, beyond the glimmers of madness radiating from it, the crimson Guardian could also induce without reasonable doubt that it was also scared to death.

And the fact this figure was garbed undeniably in peach coloured fur and [tattered] tribalistic attire served only to make that ironic statement stab at his heart.

"..._Tikal_...?" was all that Knuckles could choke out, his fit heart beating with a ragged fiercest in his chest, feeling as though it had curled around his lungs, and was still doing so.

His thoughts blared inwardly, sloshing around mentally as though the many fragments of ice in a glass of fizzy soda, smashing and against one other for vocal dominance. And as if to visually infer this war to his conscious self, flights of black spots lined the echidna's vision, as though he was going to faint. Something as far as Knuckles could recall, he'd never done before.

Chaos and his brethren of Chao were also nowhere to be seen.

_Just _what_ is going on here?_

But before he could touch that clammy, probably cold skin, and try to calm the spirit girl down, it... no, _she_, spoke.

"It breathes..." she murmured, slowly, unsurely, as though the words, _language itself_, were a foreign mistress to her small, somewhat cracked lips. Her arms hugging her petite body close, as though a protective shroud.

Knuckles having been uncertain of what to do in this _alien_ situation had decided to simply kneel down in front of Tikal and let her speak. A quiet voice in the back of his mind advising him to not disturb her, and allow the former shrine priestess to finish whatever it was that needed to be spoken.

Tikal's tone both rose in pitch and deepened, her next words coming out as though the rapid scrawls of a writer on parchment. Her sky blue eyes 'both here and there', unfocused, on Knuckles' own lavender ones.

"It _hears_... It _judges_... It _sings_... It _sees_... It _rattles_... It _burns_... It _races_... It..."

A moment of silence permeated consciously through the air – as though reality and unreality had finally kissed and made up – the two lines becoming a blurred, improbable singularity, halting all conscious thought in the vicinity

"I feel ALIVE!" Tikal finally screamed, her tone primal. And although her words died on the gentle breeze moments after, to those gathered it would never be forgotten for whatever remained of their finite lives.

* * *

The words hung heavy on the air.

This stupefying, unheralded interlude taking a slow grind to process in the Freedom Fighters', not to matter Knuckles', minds [and the humans and Mobian bat also nearby].

Tails was the first to pry himself out of the 'shell-shock syndrome', possibly due to his youthfulness and his own, albeit concise, encounter with Tikal just a day ago.

"May I do some... tests, Miss Tikal?"

But despite exuding degrees of matured confidence in his voice – the strong kind that one musters and endures for a time soon after consciously discovering it [a feat that Princess Sally Acorn for one had needed to overcome before forming the Freedom Fighters], before balancing itself out and becoming 'normal' place – there remained a childlike mystified edge to it.

Not to mention the young fox almost stumbled over his own feet...

"Yes, yes," she conceded hastily with a feeble wave before "Oh, this is so _very_ confusing..."

A breathless minute later ensured. In which time Tails performed an equipment-less doctor's spot check [the majority of which he admittedly, guiltily, recalled from one or two medical shows that'd caught his attention some weeks ago moreover than his personal lessons with Sally and Rotor on it] which involved, of course, listening for a heartbeat, examining the tongue [and air], as well as checking the reflex of the knee.

After another moment's deliberation with his thoughts, Tails then turned around and delivered his verdict.

"I don't know how it happened but... Miss Tikal is indeed alive once again," his tone secreted with vivacious worry and excitement. Then, without another word, he rejoined the group by Sonic and Sally's sides.

_By the Source, what just happened?_ Sally muttered bewilderedly in her mind. _I wonder if NICOLE could find out anything more..._

_Heavens to Bunnie, isn't that just the strangest thing ya'll ever saw?_ Bunnie chimed in confusion.

_I know the Chaos Emeralds defy all science b-but what is this?_ Rotor all but spurted inwardly.

_A person back to living, isn't zat something only in fairytails?_ Antoine gawked.

_I've seen it all now_, Rouge stupefied inwardly.

_I wonder what is the fuss is about?_ Big thought, cocking his head in confusion.

And the expression Knuckles wore was that of a blank canvas. _...?_

A pregnant moment coursed throughout.

"Well... that was modo _weird_," Sonic cracked, breaking the silence but failing to break up the tense air, for no one was laughing.

_The more things change, the more they stay the same_, Sally sighed, a small smile latching onto her face, before turning her thoughtful gaze on one Knuckles and Tikal.

_I don't... understand?_ Knuckles thought dumbfoundedly. _First Zachary came back [and tried to kill me], and now another, Tikal, has when she was _dead_ minutes ago [and leaving...]?_

He frowned on the spot. _The Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald are capable of many things, but resurrection...? That's a new one to me, and I'm their _Guardian_._

_It _was_ down to you, right?_ Knuckles asked nervously of the Master Emerald necklace shards around his neck.

Unsurprisingly, the Guardian received no answer. Not even a vision or mantra of spirits.

Knuckles' motor senses had by now stopped jittering and so offering a hand, which Tikal slowly took, he helped the young lady shakily to her feet [though at first Tikal's leg muscles had protested at being utilised], worriedly noting that her skin really was cold to the touch, but less clammy than it had been for it.

"Are you all right?" he asked, immediately regretting it the moment it left his mouth as a pained expression fleeted for a moment across the girl's sky blue eyes. Still she smiled wanly in a thankful gesture. "Y-yes, I think so. Thank you Knuckles..."

Blissfully aware of literature-born tropes that would have the male hero carry the girl [in distress or not], Knuckles simply allowed Tikal to huddle forward using his right shoulder as support.

And then realisation hit him like a Rhinobot to the cranium, and all his puzzlement over how this had happened disappeared from heart and mind [for the time being anyway], giddy laughter now rumbling like fire in the Guardian's belly, threatening to erupt outwardly.

"Knuckles, I know this is a strange time to ask but–" the guarded, yet evened voice of Sally interrupted, stepping in front of the contemplative pair.

Knuckles waved her questions away, turning swiftly to Tikal who was starting to become more natural on her feet as well as radiating some significant warmth. In his impatience though, the crimson fighter didn't see the look the former shrine priestess held in her glance.

"Tikal..." he spoke articulated strongly, forcing the words he'd wanted to say for the longest time [out loud], right now, to the only person remaining in the world [by whatever miracle had just transpired] who would know the answers.

"_Please_ tell me, what was our race like? Were we strong and proud? What was our culture?" Knuckles paused, biting his lip as he contemplated whether to ask the next one, having never even voiced it to the Master Emerald, but thinking what the heck [a feat he would be hard-pressed to confirm might be down to the antics of a cerulean blue hedgehog], he interjected it.

"Maybe... you knew my parents?" It came out almost as one muses a cultural taboo out loud. The fact was Knuckles didn't know what to make of being an 'orphan'; it was just part of who he was, but he guessed that after meeting the Freedom Fighters and seeing their Knothole Village once or twice, something had been seeded within himself, buried away for such an opportune moment such as this.

The Guardian was so psyched that he didn't realise how hard [and fast] his heart was beating now.

"Knuckles, I'm..." Tikal began slowly. And then he saw it, the misty sheen to her sky blue pools. "I'm sorry, but from what I can recall right now, only the night I sealed me and Chaos in the Master Emerald is most vivid." She paused, unable to hold back the tears that wet her eyes. "I can't even remember my fathers' name... Nor anyone else's."

"I don't know her name," Tails interjected thoughtfully. "–but you did mention that you had a grandmother to me before. She told you a poem about the Chaos Emeralds?"

Tikal paused, giving a weak nod of recognition and gratitude to the fox boy best she could through her hazy vision.

"My memories are so cloudy right now. I'm _so_ sorry," she bowed repeatedly.

_No..._ Knuckles head drooped, swivelling agitatedly to and fro, unwillingly to look into Tikal's pitying eyes, not to mention the others'. It was like a guillotine shock to the system.

The fates had spurned him once again...

_But at least Tikal is okay now_, the responsible duty bound part of his consciousness mused. _We just need to figure this out together I suppose._

* * *

"Knuckles," Sally spoke tentatively, her blue eyes compassionate, deciding to be brief and to the point, less get the pair out of here a.s.a.p. "Just what happened down below?"

"Hmm. The only thing that comes to mind is just a feeling of being watched, a chill down my back, just before and then after I turned off that generator. There was some pulsing sound before everything went dark..." Knuckles trailed off, his eyes ablaze with a cauldron of emotions. And for once Sonic had no smart comeback to deliver his fiery rival, so he remained silent, resting his own wounds.

"From what rubble I've been able scan through, Sally, there remains a charred shell of a donator," NICOLE offered. Sally thanked her pocket computer before stating it loud and clear. "Well there we it guys. It looks like someone wanted us to fail here today."

"Or someone just wanted to kill me," Knuckles muttered in his gruff tone, Tikal gazing forlornly off in the distance, her right arm still hooked around the crimson echidna's strong shoulders.

"Well did ya yank anyone's tail too hard in town, sugah?" Bunnie coaxed, trying to help.

"Yeah Knucklehead, you didn't pillage any food or drink off those simply working away did you?" Sonic chimed in. Knuckles simply rolled his eyes at the accusation, joke or not [and he _had_ paid for the stuff he'd brought in town, with change the Freedom Fighters themselves had given to him awhile back], and then momentarily froze as an... unpleasant memory slithered to the surface.

* * *

_FLASHBACK_

_As for the signal itself, it was fairly weak regarding the Master Emerald fragment but it really could feel the presence of a Chaos Emerald somewhere nearby, and so he leaned over the wall and peered across the street._

_He soon wished he'd hadn't as coming out of the casino across the said street was a trio of high heeled, short dress wearing and made up young girls [no more than sixteen], and one of them soon spotted his staring at them, his mouth wide open..._

"_Oh my god guys – there's a pervert up there looking at us!" she'd screamed, pointing at him like vermin that she should squash under her heel._

"_What the-? I'm no pervert!" he'd shouted back abruptly, in a swirl of confusion and anger. He'd held back what he'd really wanted to say to them but it wouldn't matter, for the other two with her had howled also soon after, covering themselves partly up before running out of sight, all still screaming blue murder._

_Many people from below were boring their eyes into him now, even those with specs on this dark night, and they were making him feel quite uneasy, like he actually had something to be guilty of? _

_Grunting to himself Knuckles turned his back on the world below and began a shadowy ascent up and over the buildings once more, the prospect that another Chaos Emerald was across the street completely vacating his current strain of thought. _

_He just wanted out of there._

"_Ugh... just what is up with all these girls wearing barely anything, do they not have any shame?" he muttered under his breath, as he leant against a wall with his head low. "Even echidna girls had more respect for their selves and class..." the condensing coldness of the air around him letting his breaths out in a small trail of airy smoke. _

_/END FLASHBACK_

* * *

"No, I haven't," he affirmed to Bunnie's question, leaving them all trumps short of answers. _Unless..._ "What about you guys?"

The gang thought for a moment or two.

"What about zat Gambling Max in ze Casino?" suggested a certain French speaking coyote in assistance, flinching as he recalled, in vain, the slime green reptilians piercing, golden eyes and razor sharp claws...

"I think you mean Max Gamble there Antoine," Rotor corrected. "Oui oui..." bumbled Antoine, having grown a bit used to being 'corrected' on the way his tongue was speaking. _Oui..._

Sally frowned in thought, weighing up the possibilities. Sonic's poker victory over the greedy, foul-mouthed business man fresh in her mind's eye.

* * *

_FLASHBACK_

_Sonic left the room on a tense thread but hesitating on purpose with a clear unreadable face before smirking a sly and happy grin, flipping each of his winning card deck in turn, which was an 3 Aces, a Queen and King. _

_The princess almost fainted from the exhaustion the hedgehog's rollercoaster like game had wrought, with Bunnie catching her in her arms to prevent such a fall, before the gang bursts into a joyous celebration [even Antoine, grudgingly] _

"_WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN!"_

_But Max Gamble wasn't, he was furious, and smashed the thick glass of the poker table down with one almighty fist, his eyes bloodshot._

"_You..." the gangster roared out venomously, striking a slight blood covered finger in Sonic's direction. _

"_I knew I recognised you from somewhere... Sonic the Hedgehog!" he boomed, announcing it like some high overlord to the entire present establishment, that sharp tongue of his cocking up Max's own grin._

_The crowd gasped, most in confusion [as word of Sonic and co's adventures and plight had not fully made it this far, yet] with some even applauding the blue hedgehog's amazing victory over the much disliked gambler with an iron fist._

"_You are those rogue criminals that Robotnik is ever so keen to get his fifthly hands on... Ha-ha. I'd get a pretty penny for you lot... " the villain smirked, which wasn't intimidating Sonic and the rest at all, who were already in battle stances._

_Deciding not to stick around for the ensuring rumble ahead, with some of the crowd quickly dispersed back into the main hall, with some leaving the casino immediately, having seen or been at the end of a gang attack or turf war before._

"_So you're heard of us then, well for you slime breath but were outta here. Ciao!" Sonic stated simply, the blue emerald steely grasped in his hand._

"_Oh no you don't!" the slippery villain shrieked, aiming a punch at the cerulean hedgehog's face. _

_However, unfortunately for him, a swift kick to the head, courtesy of Miss Bunnie Rabbot, rendered the notorious Max Gamble unconscious to the world and then the joyous cheers returned from outside and in._

_Laughter was thrown about too as Max Gamble's ever loyal and steadfast blonde females [and some males] dragged him out of the backdoor in a comedic hurry. _

_The freedom fighters were even offered a private party by the manager himself, who'd always been scared witless by Max Gamble's baseless threats, but they declined and offered it over to the casino's paying guests._

_And with an excited a roar that the crowd gave off in response, how could you say no? _

_/END FLASHBACK_

* * *

"I don't think so," Sally concluded, an edge of agitation in her tone. "He came across as more the type to save his own hide then stake out a foe in a ruined city. Plus..." she added. "Gamble never even met Knuckles and we were all clearly up here. The explosion was nowhere near us."

A foreboding beat wormed its way into their hearts, with no one but Topaz noting the ashen look on the President's face as this food for thought was put to bed.

Knuckles thereafter hastily spirited him and Tikal away [a move, Topaz also noted, earned the crimson echidna a cursing glare from her partner Rouge], wanting to restore the Floating Island and for them both to take some much needed rest. Something all of them ached for.

And so the Freedom Fighters, everyone, all slowly departed, thankful that tomorrow was, after all, another day.

* * *

XXXXX

**Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream**

XXXXX

* * *

And thus ends the twenty-sixth [the short Epilogue withstanding] final chapter of this story arc!

* * *

Madreña is my own _Sonic Unleashed-esque_ name for the Spanish region of Mobius [_Mad – _like you're about to say Madrid_, drena_], with Mobiums being Mobius' currency.

And yes, I personally omitted Tails' 'All's well that ends well' line from the game, I mean, what a _stupid_ thing to say – the city's just been destroyed!

Also most importantly, I fixed a plothole from the _second_ chapter – namely the fact that Chaos did not go after the Chaos Emeralds there at all and just left them there. I don't know what I was thinking of back then, but in my initial breakdown of each chapter before I began writing I'd made it so he'd ejected them from the Floating Island before he could touch them, so I've now [finally] amended this.

Finally, yes my plan was always to bring back Tikal. And the 'resurrection' depiction here was actually far tamer than what actually transpired in that 'fog' of white and green [as in possible Nightmare Fuel]. What a maddened Tikal was merrily sprouting out, by the way, related to the body, mind and heart [can you guess which is which?].

* * *

Axed titles for this chapter included: 'Eye Of The Boulder', 'And Then There Was Light', and 'Open Your Heart' and 'Beyond Good & Evil'.

* * *

And so in 2010, as I promised, this story is finished at last [minus, again, the Epilogue].

I hope you enjoyed this, any comments or ratings would be nice and appreciated!

Take care ya'll ***smiley face***


	30. Epilogue: Mortal Wounds

**Disclaimer**: _I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!_

Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "**Change The World**" by ARTIST Dream

* * *

**CHAPTER 27: Mortal Wounds **

[_NARRATOR'S POV_]

**STATION SQUARE RUIN OUSKIRTS / 20: 31 PM**

It had began just a few hours after the mistress of night had swept her ebony dress over the land, or to be more precise, the jungle that lay just a mile or so outside of the city ruins. Little pyres of reddish orange light sprouting up in the blanket of darkness one by one, illuminating the Mystic Ruins and drowning out the exotic cacophony with murmurs of heightened activity; whispering, shouting, screaming and reassuring hushes that ran like lithe fingers like a trough through the moist earth and foliage, as though recording [and committing] the emotional storm to memory.

The inevitable need for rest had led to this migration of survivors, which in turn served to leave Station Square nothing but a silent atonement of death, an ironic sentiment to one Amy Rose who'd given that title to the desert wasteland that lay to the west of the city ruins one year prior.

However, as with any carcass, it didn't take too long for a modest sprinkle of flies to converge on what leftovers remained. For not all the towering spires had been struck down or noticeably fractured, and so were ripe for the picking [whether their attendants remained or not] without a vigilant police force and public to deter their greedy hearts.

And elsewhere, in safer quarters at the northern tip of the city, in what was deemed the 'Diamond Tempest Zone' by the general populace due to the buildings impenetrable, sleek origins and the palm tree tropics [and aquatics] that surrounded it, the top members of G.U.N and the Station Square government had, for the last hour or two, been heatedly discussing prior drawn up contingency plans.

It didn't help, of course, that both sides had suffered causalities due to the haste and unexpected attack by the being that through personal testimonies of the President and two agents, Rouge and Topaz, had been confirmed as 'Chaos'. The threat had been 'neutralised' by the group calling themselves the 'Freedom Fighters from the Kingdom of Acorn', something some, especially the still-fresh leader of G.U.N., had been quick to scrutinize.

"But I have made a decision," the President finally said, his skin the colour of plaster and his words determined yet laced with fatigue. The man had decided not to take sides at this crucial hour regarding the Freedom Fighters. They could wait till morning, but this couldn't.

"I am going to ask the Dukedom of Soleanna to take in some of the populace whilst the city is being repaired of unavoidable hazards," he continued, putting much stress on the word 'some'. For the Duke, Ricardo, and his family went back at least two generations; summers spent in the coastal city-slate with his father revealed a close friendship akin to two brothers [unrelated by blood], each supporting each other in their political endeavours as much as they possibly could. In that time he had also come to know the Duke's daughter, Elise [or Little Mermaid as he affectionately had come to tease her with], and so despite his current occupation, the President still kept in close touch with both.

_Well, that's a bit of a lie isn't it you salty ol' dog_, he retracted mentally with a chuckle at his youthful turn of phrase. _I haven't seen Ricardo and Elise yet this year. Not with that distasteful reaction to increase public taxing, another series of Mobian targeted assaults, and _his_ appointment as G.U.N. leader recently. Now with this disaster of cinematic proportions it'd be lucky if I get over there to even say 'Happy Christmas!'..._

The reaction to the [partial] Soleanna accommodation had been unanimous due to the close friendship he and Ricardo had. And so the President excused himself to call the man, allowing his thoughts to again wonder as he re-adjusted his maroon red business tie. _Man, I'm thirsty_, he bemused. Despite the fact they were in an impenetrable, state of the art sanctuary, it didn't have at hand an immediate solution to dissolving warm, electric air between fellow comrades. The raw shock of everything was still fresh stock in their restless hearts and minds, and it'd showed on all of their faces.

_But even if Ricardo agrees to take some of our people, we still have to figure out where to accommodate the rest..._ The man's eyebrows frowned and his eyes narrowed as he thought harder, gulping down a pint glass of water in about thirty seconds flat as he did so.

The province of Soleanna had been first on the President's mind as he was escorted by G.U.N. helicopter back to this, his own private estate, but whilst in the air it had been mentally pushed to one side as a radio transmission confirmed what he'd been hoping for since this had all begun back at the [former] Station Square Tower [such comm devices now working flawlessly due to Chaos' removal].

All he'd wanted thereafter was to embrace his wife and daughter and never let go, nor leave them again. But desperate times for the people of their city had called for his full attention and so upon arrival he'd only five minutes tops with them before being prompted politely [i.e. with no room to say otherwise] into the underground heart that made up their home, the dubbed Hall of Counsel.

The circular room was very spacious [and amply air-conditioned] despite being surrounded by compact earth, and housed around sixty cobalt blue seats arranged in a semicircle [with crimson seats dedicated to the higher powers like the Presidents, Prime Ministers etc.].

Bluish clay carpet, thin, but soft and firm, fit the floor like a glove, which contrasted nicely with the smooth, earthy green walls which arced at the ceiling, transforming into spiralled bands of white light, which were periodically intersected by tinted bands of warm clay.

As the leading body of the United Federation the city of Station Square, naturally, held a flag which was displayed on the back wall, its red and white streaks [and its dozen white stars on deep blue] eternally restless in the underground chamber. And its other members, like the yellow phoenix on rose red flag of Chun-Nan, the sea blue Apoto's flag with white anchor and stripes, or the turquoise flag of Soleanna adored with a depiction of a watery white bird-like creature with six angelic wings, of course, resided either underneath its own or to the left [or right] of it.

Together these [and numerous others] made up the majority of the human remainder on the planet under the title 'United Federation'.

On the back wall overseeing the proceedings was a giant painting, made by one Abraham Ortelius, which depicted an old [not yet 'ancient'] map of the world. An amber brass ornate heading, arced across the top of it, depicting 'Terra Firma' in a simplistic black, serif typeface [the term 'Mobius' had been thrown around for as far back as anyone could remember, and which term to use was still quietly debated amongst some Mobians and Humans to this day].

Its edges drew into scrolls, lending extra emphasis on the tendrils of cadet grey mist that trailed off the end(s) of the world. Most interesting of all one would fail to observe, would be that of the western hemisphere of the planet. Only one moderately sized island, West Island, and an assemblage of much smaller landmarks, like a trickle of underwater bubbles, were marked. The large landmass that connected to the northern most point of West Island via a natural land bridge being unofficially named the 'Mist Continent' due to its, well, eternally natural veil of the thick, moist stuff.

Manned excursions to it had resulted in reports of it claiming it was nothing but a barren mountainous wasteland, though as aforementioned earlier, numerous groups [official and unofficial] still dispute this.

There had not been an excursion there since before the Great Mobian War, however. _And that was still years before my appointment as President_, the man had himself mused with acute wonder, before the crux of their species' predicament had been swiftly brought back to his foremost thoughts, like a reaper's glaive to the chest. For upon stepping into the hall, one of his aides had pulled him aside, explaining to him just why one of the guest seats, wedged between Apotos and Spagonia, was strikingly empty.

A list of the known deceased had continued to be expanded upon in the wake of the evacuation, and it had only minutes prior been confirmed that one such soul had been that of Jorge Argus, the much loved Minister of Agriculture in Madreña who'd been slated for a meeting with him and the other 'powers that be' [about Station Square's contributions towards human agriculture, surprisingly enough], which ruled out swift aid from them for a time... It was an inevitable action that he both frowned at and [grudgingly] respected.

_That's always been Madreña to the hilt. Stubborn, but fiercely loyal to its allies nevertheless_, the President warmly called back as he then fulfilled his earlier promise of calling his old friend in Soleanna.

Thenceforth all was well [Ricardo had agreed to adopt a fifty-five percent portion of the Station Square survivors for the time being], however, the President's hand lingered hesitantly on his office door for a moment.

_I feel like I've done everything I needed to, but at the same time... I feel like I've forgotten something important. _

Escorting that thought willingly to long-term memory, the President broke into a brisk stride, determined to break up the tenseness in the hall before the stroke of midnight crept upon them all.

He could retrieve [and dissolve] the nagging memory when he was alone and presently undistracted.

The United Federation would adjourn another two and a half hours later, but the President would warily find he had one last case of business to handle of before the mistress of the night claimed him.

* * *

Elsewhere, amongst the dark recesses of the Mystic Ruins and next to the crown of the lake that had birthed Chaos' fourth incarnation, a collection of faces were sitting around an orange-red pyre. They were both striving to keep warm and to rest up after the exhausting day, and one which had left them all as puzzled as the unshakable feeling that they'd reached a [brief] calm in the storm that was their lives [the Freedom Fighters among the present faces in particular knew such turning tides now all too well].

Up above them insects had slowly began to chirp again in unison, as though feeling out for a greater enemy to their way of life than usual, a feat which was soon contested by the rest of the jungle wildlife, and so a toned-down symphony took its place in the mistresses' night once more. Something that had ceased about an hour or two previous due to the hollow roar of the rising Floating Island, now but a dark shadow [for the time being] over Mobius' moon.

This further eased calmness into the group, something which was likely helped by their distant proximity to the Station Square survivors. They had just wanted a break from the cries of thanks, the awed stares and the rest of it.

Or at least that's what the Freedom Fighters told themselves, for at the heart of it that worm of guilt was still festering gleefully within them. To be truthful, they felt like they didn't belong here at all...

Amy Rose then breached that clearing moments later, carrying a tray of piping hot soup and bread [courtesy of the G.U.N. Med Unit], which she then set on the soft, sheltered earth. Everyone took some helpings. Amy, setting aside her own for now, then wrapped her arms around her grazed legs, letting the silence have its say for a moment as the gentle wind played with their hair before she spoke.

"I want to go back with you guys tomorrow," the hot pink hedgehog articulated, a bold resolve in her tone that hadn't been there in days prior. And it didn't go unnoticed by any of them.

_I guess we could put that down to her solo adventure with the robot 'ZERO'_, Sally thought evenly, a warm sense of appreciation elevating her spirit of mixed feelings. The outspoken 'fan girl' had sure come a long way in this last year [in these last few days even].

The auburn haired woman, leader of a young resistance group then chuckled inwardly. _It looks like we all have had our own journeys whilst we've been here; I, Sonic and the rest... Tails when he got separated from Bunnie and the rest...Knuckles... _The Princess stiffened, remembering clearly the ashen look that had been plastered on the Guardian's face when he had slowly [but with notable haste in his eyes] escorted Tikal and himself out of the ruined city [_away from all of us_] and back to the Floating Island.

She curiously wondered what they had said to each other on the way back there. Had they said _anything_ [furthermore, what _could_ be said to ease their situation]?

Sally shook her head, the last of her previous trail of thought whispering out before she could even consciously think about it. _Even that robot, Gamma, and 'Big the Cat' looked to have had their adventures, going off Amy and Knuckles' recollections._

A passionately hard squeeze on her left hand brought the contemplating royal back to reality.

"That's great to hear that you've made up your mind at last," Sonic beamed, unaware [seemingly] of his greater strength regarding his grip on Sally's hand [the cheeky hedgehog had wanted to lay across her chest at first – but Sally wasn't having any of that, and with a sigh had relented with simple hand holding to quell the sulky, incapacitated hedgehog].

"Now I would give you a hug or something but, err, doctor's orders kinda said that I should lay off _strong_ physical contact for awhile. At least till Doctor Quack back home has checked me over and stuff..." the cerulean blue hedgehog sheepishly replied. And those that weren't Amy allowed themselves a light chuckle at the underlying meaning behind his words.

All the rosy hedgehog gave them was a 'Hmmph!' before lightly laughing at her own expense, which served as a nice prelude to a modest round of applauds and hugs between all [bar one Sonic].

* * *

Another calm interlude was then broken by the meekly stifles of one returning Lisa Worthington, who accompanied by Big, had been up getting their own helpings of food and drink [not that Big couldn't have fished his own stuff back home, but he'd felt compelled to stay with them all for awhile, for some reason].

The fourteen year old girl's tear-streaked face was swiftly captured in Amber's embrace, and Lisa returned it gladly, trying to calm herself. A few moments later and she had, but her brown eyes noted that Big was looking at her awkwardly, his yellow irises glowing brightly in the darkness. They were full of sadness and confusion she came to realise, and then she felt bad for making him so.

Lisa then took his gloved paw in her other free one and smiled, which he slowly returned.

"What happened?" Amber asked gently, worriedly, stroking through the ebony locks of her younger sister's hair like a mother would. And with an awkward rustle so that she was now sitting in Amber's lap [and not pathetically sprawled across her], Lisa then quietly explained just what had transpired, short as it'd been.

"It was while Big and I were waiting in the line," she began. "Towards the end of it I think, 'cause all those smells: freshly made bread, tomato and mulligatawny soup, and orangey citrus juice, hit us then," Lisa paused, a giddy smile propping itself up onto her lips. "Yeah, I _do_ remember now, 'cause Big's stomach grumbled really loudly!" The cat's expression neither denied nor confirmed this.

"It was then that I noticed them," she continued. "Some other survivors, some men, some women, I couldn't put a name to them or anything," Lisa rattled on, as though listing the ingredients for a shopping list. "And they were muttering and glaring in our direction. I freaked for abit, their eyes looked dangerous, ravenous even. I thought they were for me..." her quiet, careful voice trailed off.

"But they weren't I take it?" the red head Amber prodded, her emerald pools dancing with the notion of having 'words' with this bunch, if just for upsetting her sister, a mere child! But, Bunnie noted, this feeling soon simmered from the young adult's eyes as the necessity for the whole picture took predominance. Also, the young woman most likely did not want to wake Zack, whom was currently sleeping in a basic sleeping bag next to her position, and had been for a good while [he'd complained of a particularly bad headache awhile after Perfect Chaos had been beaten].

"No," Lisa murmured, casting her eyes upward. "They were belittling Big, though I know not why. You've never even been to Station Square before today have you?"

After a thoughtful beat the deep purple Mobian Cat answered her, his tone soft like velvet and as warm as fresh toast, gently patting his sleeping shoulder passenger, a green frog, as he did so.

"I came to the city, away from home, only a day or two ago," Big affirmed. "I just wanted to save Froggy, and I did," he stated simply, letting his warm smile voice the remaining meanings. _No, I went to Station Square briefly, but I made no personal enemies. I just minded my own business._

"Hmm," Rotor interjected, having a grim idea as to what had transpired. "Well it wouldn't be _too_ farfetched to assume that some folk still hold a grudge against us Mobians regarding the Great War and all."

"... And especially after what happened today," Bunnie breathed, her usual bold and bright demeanour a sombre shadow of its former self, shrouded in tiredness and guilt.

"Yeah," Rotor agreed gravely, kneeling down to met Lisa's height [which to be honest wasn't too much below himself]. "Everyone takes catastrophes like this one in different ways," the walrus suggested to comfort. "And those who feel similarly tend to band together because it makes them feel better, stronger, whatever. Things are just a little tense right now, but it'll pass. There's nothing for you or Big to worry about."

Amber mouthed a thank you to him as words temporarily escaped her, electing a yawn in their place. _I guess I'm more tired than I thought_, she thought to herself. _I'd say it's near time for us to rustle up for bed soon Lisa..._

Then they slowly came. "Don't worry, for as long as I'm here," she paused, looking at them all; Amy, Sally, Bunnie, Tails, Antoine, Rotor, Sonic, and then the sleeping Zack. "_We're_ here, you'll never be hurt." Amber's face and tone took on a steely determination now. "And we won't let anyone, who would care to, hurt Amy and her friends either. That's a promise."

"Amber..." remarked Amy in awe, before giving her adopted 'sisters' a tight hug. The hot pink hedgehog was about to turn in, but then a thought that had been clutched in her chest, held captive by her own will for the last few hours out of fear of being turned, burst free suddenly.

"Sally," she related, her voice peppered with steely. "I've been wondering... Do you think we can provide safe passage for Amber, Lisa and Zack with us back to the village?" Closing her eyes swiftly shut, Amy paused for a second, and then ploughed straight on. "I know it's a _lot_ to ask, and there's probably not much there space anymore but–"

"Sure. That'll be just fine," Princess Sally stated simply, accomplishing what few had ever seen: someone stupefying Amy mid-sentence [although in this case it was, thankfully, a _good_ thing].

"Err. _Wow._ I don't know what to say!" Amy exclaimed, almost fit to bowl over with happiness.

"You don't need to say anything at all," Sally reassured her in an understanding tone, rising up from her 'cushy' seat by one Sonic the Hedgehog [now pouting] and accepting the handshake from her new-again friend. "We haven't had many new residents come into the Great Forest this year gone, so we have two or three newly built, though empty houses. They're only small, but they should do for the time being I hope."

"Hey, don't forget that one of them is for our actually established drinking hole Sal!" Sonic chimed in.

Sally waved him off smoothly, leaving Amy a little confused, though intrigued at the developments that had obviously procured in Knothole Village in her absence.

"We don't have anyone who is, umm, prejudiced against humans back in Knothole, do we?" Amy then asked seriously. Or Amy had _planned_ to, but it'd come out more sheepish, something that was either waved away unconsciously by everyone or taken in matched amusement.

Sally thoughtfully ran through a list of Knothole's current denizens [allocating some probability towards the possibility of new ones being there when they arrived back] before replying in earnest.

"Well, Rosie is, well, Rosie. Despite the Great War and the effect it had on us all, the kingdom and the monarchy; I've never sensed a bad bone in her body, and surely not towards humanity. We can are just as bad as one another in the worst of times, after all." She paused.

"And her regular trio of baby-sitted ones have never met anyone from outside the village, nor attended school yet, so you should bear no ill from them either. Doctor Quack and his family seem pretty level-headed too, from what time I've spent personally with them," Sally added.

"Okay, okay, I get the picture," Amy affirmed, filling in the remainder of their small knit community mentally. And no ugly auras or premonitions arose from them [fuelled most likely by the fact that the 'youngsters' still outnumbered the adults by a fair few], except maybe one...

"But how about Dulcy?"

For the first time in their conversation the Princesses' confident expression wavered, as did the rest of the Freedom Fighters. To date the lime green and hot pink dragon known as Dulcy had only had contact with one human, the very worst of the lot, Robotnik, who'd attempted to robotize her mother Sabrina and failed, accidentally killing her in front of her daughter's eyes instead. There was no telling how she might react to seeing any more, yet alone three of them...

_Still,_ Sally thought firmly, logically. _Dulcy might not be back from her self-appointed trip to the Dragon Kingdom yet._ _And if she is, well, we'll just have to make her see sense if it comes to the boil._ And telling Amy and the Worthington's [minus Zack] as much, Sally then decided to relinquish an idea she'd wanted to get out in the open for the last few minutes, before getting some much needed shuteye.

"You could come back with us too if you wanted to, Mr Big?" she asked tentatively, still a little unsure as to how to approach the quiet, but nicely spoken cat. He was, after all, a pure 'wildcat' compared to their community-knitted [albeit different in their own right] ways. Sally simply did not want to offend or push him so far [and so quickly] outside of his comfort zones.

The Princess of Acorn needn't had worried, however, for Big's reply was one filled with acute honesty and gratitude.

"That's a very nice thing you offered Froggy and I Miss Princess, but our home is here in the Mystic Ruins." He paused. "I do hope we all meet again though..." Big then finished, with a merry twinkle in his gleaming eyes.

Sally had been half-expecting the answer, but nodded her head in understanding, before then tucking into her sleeping bag, next to Sonic's, and resting her head on the pillow, hopeful for some good night sleep.

Unfortunately for her she _was_ next to Sonic the Hedgehog, the very definition of liveliness and impatience, who before one could say 'an elephant never forgets'...

"Sooo, back to the drinking hole we established Amy. We don't have to rely on Rosie's place anymore, isn't that great?" the cerulean blue hedgehog almost sang, his tone infectiously beaming with happiness. In the background and nearby, a stifled groan could be heard.

"Yeah, it sure sounds like it," Amy replied in earnest, a trifle amused that the blue blur was so excited about a place where he simply drank what he did outside of it [of the group, only Bunnie and Antoine could drink _and_ buy alcohol, after all].

_I wonder if Sally and Rotor have developed a taste for liquor at all?_ She then thought curiously, her mind's eye already seeing Rotor, perhaps, as a casual drinker and Sally tending to perchance a single cautious glass of wine a week. "Though where do you get your supplies from, and who runs the place?"

"Well..." came the drawn-out reply. "We, ermm, don't have a landlord yet, and thus no supplies," Sonic chuckled sheepishly [but the truth all the same], half-scolding himself for laying out the inevitable embarrassment. He supposed Sal _did_ have a point that he spoke before he thought.

"Sugah-hog, I hope by that 'landlord' that ya'll ain't excluding the possibility of a landlady in Knothole!" Bunnie seethed playfully, hands on her slender hips.

"Yes Sonic," Sally joined in, her eyes bright and dangerous. "You wouldn't be so _low_ and so _ungentleman-like_ like to besiege such thoughts, would you now?" She and Bunnie were now either side of the bedridden hedgehog, waiting patiently for his reply.

Feeling unrightfully ganged-up on Sonic tried to say as such, but it came out as something else entirely, something meekly and pathetic.

"No, no! Of course not! Come on, Sal, Bunnie. You know that I bear no such grudge against women," he spewed, repelling the frosty reception as best as he could manage [which, as aforementioned, came out rather 'unmanly' as Sonic would've hoped for]. "A landlady would be fine too."

_Though a man would let us stay up later and let us watch what we want on the TV... _he, wisely, inwardly admitted.

And shrugging off the small chuckles at his expense with ease the blue blur then turned over, pulling the greenish brown covers over his chest, leading everyone else to do the same.

The darkness of sleep had never seemed sweeter.

* * *

**PRESIDENT'S OFFICE / DIAMOND TEMPEST ZONE / STATION SQUARE RUIN OUSKIRTS / 23: 15 PM**

_Why in god's name did I agree to this?_

This was at the heart of a spectrum of thoughts fleeting around the President's mind, the same man who, after just twenty months in office had befriended a great man, lost him, and had heinous suspicions about his successor and, of course, had led the city of Station Square through a cataclysm unlike any other known to modern times.

_I should be with Laura and Jeri... I'm owed that much today._

His fingers found the glass framed picture, bordered in silver ivory, whose home had been on his work desk since the beginning, and traced a ripple of a line softly, meaningfully, across it. Within it contained snapshot, a memory of less complicated times.

Wrapped in his arms, clad in a spearmint blue top [clearly Hawaiian-inspired] and beige shorts, was the love of his love, Laura, a prim and traditional brunette housewife [with a black belt]. And stealing the spotlight from them, just below their waists was their small buddle of joy, Jeri, who was stuffing her face into a Sundae Supreme, dubbed the _"ultimate chocolate sundae"_ in Apotos.

Vanilla ice cream, bits of chocolate and strawberries covered in chocolate, amidst whipped cream and wafer cookies, in this frozen still in time looked set to spill down the five year olds lime green dress with lemon yellow collar, sleeves and socks. But Jeri just looked happy to be having fun eating and flunging the stuff around than upset that it was going everywhere.

_And she really was._ The President thought tenderly. _We all really enjoyed that holiday in Apotos; the year before I was elected._

Sat alone at his desk, nearing the ending chime of the day, and still patiently waiting, the man sighed outwardly as his thoughts trickled from his family [that he didn't see as much as he'd love to anymore], to the events of the day. The 'Tsunami Cataclysm' - or whatever future generations would name it. To him, someone in the present, it'd been something akin to the mobian myth: The Days of Fury.

_I'm supposed to be held up as a paragon of hope and justice to my people... I know that it would've been an impossibility to have saved everyone [as much as I wished no one's lives had had to be, randomly, cut short here today], but... Did I live up to that today? _

The President had no more time to dwell on these thoughts however, as promised for twenty minutes past the hour, a strong, yet reserved knocking, a series of four, echoed from the closed [yet unlocked] doorway.

_This is it..._ he breathed quietly to himself. _'Won't you come in?' Asked the spider to the fly_, the man thought, feeling a sense of dread sliver from his heart to the tips of his fingers.

"Come in," the President managed, as even and professional as was to be expected of him.

Or so he hoped.

The door swung open swiftly, though with a transitional sense of dramatic elegance, as though rehearsing for a theatre play. And then, from the shadows of the outside hallway, came the anticipated figure.

"Katon," was the brief, stony greeting the President mustered, as he poised himself for the inevitable battle of wills that was to follow when _this_ man was involved.

"Mr President, what a delight it is to be in company of one such as yourself," the other man replied with a courtesy swing of a long fingered hand, as he stepped out of the shadows and into the mid-lit illuminated office, revealing the speaker's physical guise.

Mr Katon was a well built, though slim man at six feet [and six inches] in height, with a dark golden tan, who walked tall with his elongated head, his feet moving in an unhurried, unbothered manner. This, among other features added to the aura of superiority that the President [and even a select dozen of soldiers under his authority] detested about the man.

The black emerald specks that made up his eyes shone like marbles in the dissipated, unnatural light that surrounded the men, adding a sinister flicker to Katon's porcelain face. Framing his pale lips and pointed nose were long, strands of ivory hair [with light lavender tints] that fell smoothly down just below his shoulders, thick at the roots and thinning at the ends.

And tonight the mysterious man was robed in a warm dark grey uniform adored with a sash of yellow, red and blue ribbons. His leggings extruded [pointy-like] at the thighs, giving 'Mr Katon' a subtle clownish appearance, before thinning tightly to his legs the remainder of the way down, just overlooking his shined, squarely rounded black shoes.

"Now what do we have here. Oh my... Are you polishing that mobian group's hero medals _already?_" Katon exclaimed pleasingly [with a touch of stony, dramatic flair], fully aware that the President's right hand currently only had the touches for his silver framed family portrait.

"Cut the theatrical bullshit Katon," growled the President, his brown eyes flaring in accordance. "Just tell me why you wanted to see me and leave me in peace."

"How commendable you are," uttered the dark man in a low, dangerous voice that flowed like water. "I only wanted to come in and congratulate you on a crisis well handled _personally_." He paused. "And that mobian group of course, what did they call themselves again...?"

Moments fleeted by, lost forever into the darkness outside the office's window. And such moments tested Katon's patience, as evidenced by the growing frown on that porcelain face of his, as well as the low, threatening voice that now again snaked out of his mouth.

"I know you don't like me Mr President, and haven't from the start – never gave me a chance, like a playground bully typical – but I can't help the fact that your old friend Tower wanted to step down and let a younger, stronger man handle the reins of G.U.N.–"

The President then abruptly roared in laughter. He hadn't wanted to make such a spectacle of the man's spoken sentiment but he just couldn't help it.

A dark aura flickered over Katon's face, and what one supposed might have been a snarl was actually a growing smirk at the corner of those pale lips; a revealing smile of white in the darkness.

"Oh, dear," he began dramatically. "I do hope that you aren't becoming paranoid, _sir_, and think that I had anything to do with his stepping down, I mean, let's face it, he _was_ spilling over half a century."

"Maybe not with Abraham..." the President [grudgingly] admitted. "But you are no saint Katon. I know that much," was the determined, evidence reinforced retort.

"Ah yes, this is a world of sinners, and in the realm of humans you are one of the Kings, are you not?" The dark man paced slowly, and elegantly, back and forth now in the recesses beyond the President's desk. "The weak lose their freedom to the strong. Such is the way of the strong. And it is the providence of nature that only the strong survive." Katon paused. "Today proved as such, for we are both still here!" he dictated, his arms sprawled with a gesture.

"But..." _That_ voice again. "Do not think I _don't_ know Mr President," Katon taunted knowingly, those emeralds specks flickering with an unnatural blaze.

Then, in an instant, the dark man was right up against the desk, a glinting silver object now hopping merrily from one hand to the other, entrancing the President's brown orbs, his heart now seemingly in this sinister being's grasp.

"We wouldn't like anything to become of the innocent ones – those who don't make the decisions we have to every day, what is it now, _over five thousand_ dead in the wake of Perfect Chaos and rising? – now, do we?" Katon breathed, a suppressive tone in his voice as he held the photo right in the statesman's ashen face.

And that earlier spring of hope nested in the President's heart was brutally derailed as he, _again_, forgot to never underestimate this man.

_At least I remembered what I set out to do earlier_, was the only comforting thought, next to the gained extra time he'd possibly have with his family now due to the Perfect Chaos incident [as guilty as he should've felt, the statesman was inching more towards not at this particular point].

The dark man smiled, knowing he was victorious, his hand still containing that one particular treasure. "So, I trust you will deliver the mobian troupe's name, yes?"

"They called themselves the Freedom Fighters from South Island. And that is _all_ I know," the man breathed, clenching his fists with fury, inwardly hoping against hope that he'd gained the group in question a little more time... The President's layer of desperation to save those he loved something that the other man found a trifle amusing.

Still, he gave the statesman back his precious little trinket anyway; if letting it freely drop to the floor and breaking the barrier of glass counted as such anyway...

The President gave the dark man one last loathsome glare as he strode back gladly into the shadows and left the room. Allowing the emotionally, and physically exhausted man to recompose himself, thankful that his world here seemed a bit brighter again now he was gone.

* * *

Later on, and outside the Diamond Tempest Zone perimeter, Mr Katon had just done self-congratulating himself on a plan well executed when one of his 'established' contacts hummed through on his ultra-secure mobile device [one that only the G.U.N. Commander was bestowed with]. The man let it ring to three cycles, as though the sound was blessing his victory, before answering: "Well?"

His contact did not disappoint him either, elevating Katon's previous thought.

"Follow them. I want to know what hole these chaos-inducing rabbits came out of," the dark man ordered, licking his lips in something nearing the feeling of ecstasy, before clicking the device off.

_And then_, the mysterious man thought, _the fun can _truly_ begin..._

_

* * *

_

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**Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream**

XXXXX

* * *

And so this story is at its final end!

But this is only the beginning of what will become a pinnacle moment in Mobian history, not to mention a catalyst for events beyond that...

* * *

In this I did some world building with more insight into the political powers [remaining] in the human side of Mobius, that of Soleanna and Madreña [again, as explained last chapter, it's my personal Unleashed-like name for the Spanish region of the planet], in regards to the President of Station Square [whose name I really couldn't decide on]. Oh wells.

And also, of course, the man's fortress of an estate [every President/Monarch needs one, no?]

Originally that section was meant to be like two or three paragraphs but I got inspired and ran with it. *shrugs*

Abraham Ortelius, by the way, made the _Theatrum Orbis Terrarum_ or "Theatre of the World") in 1570, a world map that is considered to be the first true modern atlas of our time. And Abraham Tower is the Archie Sonic comic's name for the G.U.N. Commander [or former, in the case of my story].

Axed titles for this chapter included: 'Moving On', 'Long Way Till Morning', 'The Eyeland', 'Ripples', and 'Into The Woods'.

Now following 'Tides' I have decided to for the time being focus on one-shot centric(s) that cover certain character tales prior to the aforementioned. My own personal choices are currently between these: '**The First Badnik**', '**The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows**', '**Catch A Falling Star**', '**Homecoming**' and '**Eye Of The Beholder**'.

You may vote for one if you so wish as well.

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I hope you enjoyed this, and the chapters so far, any comments or ratings would be nice and appreciated!

Take care ya'll ***smiley face***


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